Graduate Students' Perspectives Toward Telepractice at the COVID-19 Global Pandemic Onset

McGill, Megann Dennard Qiana

Purpose: The purpose of this article was to describe a cross-sectional research study exploring the perceived knowledge, skills, and attitudes of telepractice service delivery use among speech-language pathology graduate students during the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Method: Students' perceived knowledge, skills, and attitudes toward telepractice were examined through an online questionnaire that contained 23 questions, including five demographic questions and 18 Likert scale questions. Participants were 189 graduate students (96% female, 60% first-year graduate students) currently enrolled in speech-language pathology graduate programs. Statistical analyses on students' responses, including independent-samples t tests and correlations, were conducted. Results: Only 20% of respondents stated they had provided services via telepractice. Most participants reported slightly more confidence in their perceived skills related to telepractice as compared to their perceived knowledge of telepractice. Students who had prior experience with telepractice were more likely to provide higher ratings compared to those with no experience. Higher ratings of perceived telepractice knowledge and skills were observed for second-year and third-year graduate students compared to first-year students. Positive correlations were observed between students' higher confidence in perceived knowledge and skills related to telepractice and their attitudes toward the service delivery model. Despite positive responses related to perceived telepractice knowledge and skills, the majority of participants reported preferring in-person services over telepractice. Conclusions: Taken together, results of this study demonstrate there is an ongoing need for additional telepractice training programs in speech-language pathology focusing on areas in which students feel least comfortable. Telepractice clinical implications and graduate program training recommendations are discussed.