Occupational therapists' perception of usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in Western Australia and the association of availability of ICT on recruitment and retention of therapists working in rural areas

Objective:  The purpose of this study was to investigate occupational therapists' usage of information and communication technology (ICT) in Western Australia and the association of availability of ICT on recruitment and retention of rural therapists.
Methods:  One thousand, one hundred and thirty-eight surveys were sent to all occupational therapists registered with the Western Australian Occupational Therapy Registration Board in January 2003. The survey was used to identify ICT access, support and literacy. The attitude of therapists towards using ICT as a communication tool and therapists' usage patterns of ICT in metropolitan and rural localities were analysed by using the Chi-squared test.
Results:  Email and the personal computer were used most frequently. On ICT global competency, 58% of therapists rated their competency level as good or better. Competence was rated lower for web searching (48.5%) and searching for electronic articles (29.8%). Approximately one-third of respondents were dissatisfied with the level of technical support available and only 38.4% of therapists had participated in basic computer training provided by their current employer. Rural therapists had less access to a computer in their work environments in comparison to their metropolitan peers (P  <  0.05). Nevertheless, rural therapists were using email, teleconferencing and videoconferencing more frequently than their metropolitan counterparts.
A proportion of rural therapists (45.5%) felt that ICT influenced their decision to continue working in rural areas.
Discussion and Conclusion:  Professional isolation has been cited as an inhibitor to recruit and retain health-care workers in rural areas. The higher ICT usage by rural therapists may represent the utility of ICT as a means of circumventing professional isolation that is inherent in rural and remote areas.