Publication Date

Spring 2021

Advisor(s) - Committee Chair

Lauren Bland (Director), Allison Hatcher, and Brian Weiler

Degree Program

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Degree Type

Master of Science

Abstract

Many university programs in speech-language pathology who offer clinical training as part of their graduate program, transitioned to a telepractice service delivery model in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the current research project was to survey graduate student opinions and perspectives on the telepractice service delivery model before and after training. Graduate students enrolled in a SLP distance program at WKU participated in a summer clinical internship and were asked to complete pre- and post-surveys about their remote clinical experience. Pre- and postsurveys were completed by 27 graduate students who were enrolled in the summer clinical internship that included a five-week formal telepractice training. The Wilcoxon Signed-Ranks test indicated that post-test Knowledge question scores were significantly greater than pre-test Knowledge question (p < .001). Likewise, post-test Comfort question scores were significantly greater than pre-test Comfort question scores (p < .001). The statistically significant impact on student knowledge and comfort in learning and using telepractice as a service delivery model further supports the need to integrate a telepractice component to clinical education for SLP programs at the graduate level. Keywords: telepractice, speech-language pathology, clinical education

Disciplines

Communication Sciences and Disorders | Other Medicine and Health Sciences | Speech Pathology and Audiology

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