Exploring Physicians’ attitudes in King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital at Taif, Saudi Arabia towards the use of video conferencing during the pandemic COVID 19.

Abstract

Publication Ready Paper Abstract This study aimed to explore the attitudes of physicians at King Abdulaziz Specialist Hospital in Taif, Saudi Arabia towards the applications of videoconferencing during the COVID 19 pandemic. This was done through the following qualitative study in which data was collected from 22 physicians from the hospital and then analysed through using thematic analysis to identify themes in the transcripts. three themes were underlined (i.e., benefits of video conferencing, challenges of video conferencing, and ways to increase the use of virtual clinic services, including video conferencing). Limitations include the difficulty of generalising the results to the whole population because the small sample size does not reflect the population.

Review of the Literature Abstract This study explores the literature about physicians’ attitudes towards the use of video conferencing during pandemic COVID 19. After critical appraisal of secondary data in the literature, this study found that using video conferencing has been perceived by physicians as being useful for its role in enabling remote service for practitioners which deeded effective specially in times of crisis such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, it has assisted in cutting costs and reduce the time of both healthcare providers and receivers. In addition, it has proved as being a practical solution to deal with emergency cases where substantial time might pass before a patient can meet medical specialist. Nevertheless, the literature showed that there are adverse views from physicians towards the using of video conferencing because of a number of reasons which include lack of physician interaction with the patient as well as predicaments in online communications due to disruption in network connectivity. Moreover, physicians indicate that using video conferencing is not a risk free from security concerns which could threat privacy and confidentiality of patients.