Tele-practice for the delivery of Speech-Language Therapy and Audiology services to rural areas in Saudi Arabia: Survey investigating practitioners’ perceptions

Abstract

Telehealth is an overarching concept that can be described as the use of telecommunications technologies and electronic information to connect healthcare providers with their patients in order to provide far-reaching care, education, and administration related to health (Behl & Kahn, 2015). A number of service-specific terms have emerged under telehealth: ‘tele-practice’ is a term adopted by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) to describe telehealth services that are specific to Speech-Language Therapy (SLT) and audiology (ASHA, n.d.). For such a non-traditional method of service delivery, it is necessary to build more acceptance and enhance confidence; this can be achieved by obtaining a deep understanding of practitioners’ perspectives (May & Erickson 2014; Whitten & Holtz, 2008a, 2008b). Several recent studies around the world have examined the perspectives and attitudes of Speech-Language Therapists (SLTs) and audiologists regarding tele-practice. To date, no study has addressed the perceptions of practitioners working in Saudi Arabia (SA). Thus, the current study aimed to investigate their perspectives through the distribution of an online questionnaire, which was completed by seventy-five SLTs and audiologists. The results highlight the current profile of tele-practice in SA, the advantages, disadvantages, and facilitators of using tele-practice, and practitioners’ preferred circumstances for using it. Finally, it demonstrated Saudi practitioners’ willingness to offer this service for their patients. In conclusion, this study contributed new knowledge that will help implement tele-practice for delivering SLT and audiology services to rural areas in SA. It provided valuable information about the practitioners’ perspectives which are specifically related to Saudi culture.