| Sumario: | Purpose: Due to a substantial shortage of native (Kuwaiti) speech-language pathologists (SLPs), Kuwait needs SLPs from different nationalities and degree programs. One of the concerns with this approach is that speech and language services provided by governmental and private sectors might not meet international standards of clinical practice. This study explored two types of professional values: the Code of Ethics adopted by the American Speech-Language- Hearing Association (ASHA, 2003) and the SLP's personal code of ethics. Method: A survey instrument using a Likert scale (i.e., agree, not sure, disagree) was designed and administered to 52 SLPs (22 Kuwaitis, 19 Egyptians, and 11 Jordanians) employed in special schools and hospitals in Kuwait. Four of ASHA's (2003) Principles of Ethics were investigated: (a) SLP services; (b) the SLP's responsibility to achieve and maintain the highest level of professional competence; (c) the SLP's responsibility to the public by promoting public understanding of the professions; and (d) the SLP's responsibility to the profession and his or her relationship with colleagues, students, and allied professions. Results: The findings of the study revealed a mismatch between the SLP's personal code of ethics and ASHA's Code of Ethics. There were no statistically significant differences between the ethics knowledge of Kuwaiti SLPs and that of expatriate SLPs. Conclusion: Various factors may have contributed to this gap in knowledge, including differences in training, the standards of a specific workplace, and lack of a standard definition of what constitutes professional practice in speech-language pathology. Other implications for clinical services and the need for improving training programs are discussed.
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