Wheelchair service provision content in professional rehabilitation organisations' standards documents and contemporary initiatives: a rapid review.

PURPOSE: We sought to identify opportunities, challenges, contemporary initiatives and strategies for preparing entry-level practitioners who are competent at the basic level of wheelchair service provision across four key international professional rehabilitation organisations as revealed by their educational standards, relevant guidelines and policy statements, and other publicly available information. METHOD: A rapid review was conducted in 2021 from the International Society of Physical and Rehabilitation Medicine (ISPRM), the International Society for Prosthetics and Orthotics (ISPO), World Physiotherapy, and the World Federation of Occupational Therapists (WFOT). Additional grey-literature and grey-data searches were conducted to identify contemporary initiatives that may support competency development in wheelchair service provision. RESULTS: A total of 17 standards, guidelines, and policy statement documents were selected for detailed review. Each of the four organisations published at least one document containing language relating to wheelchair service provision. Twelve contemporary initiatives relating to wheelchair service provision were identified from the grey literature across the four organisations. Six additional initiatives were identified from the organisations' social media accounts. Themes emerged in the areas of contemporary content, opportunities, and challenges. CONCLUSION: Global standardisation could help harmonise professional societies' approach to training wheelchair service providers.IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATIONThere is a need to provide more descriptive content on wheelchair service provision in education and service standards and related documents to influence what is taught in professional rehabilitation programs that are accredited or approved by professional rehabilitation organisations.The organisations' networks are vast and may also help to promote additional continuing education in this area.

Development and efficacy of an online wheelchair maintenance training program for wheelchair personnel.

OBJECTIVES: To develop an online version of the wheelchair maintenance training program (WMTP) and compare learning outcomes from the in-person and online programs using the wheelchair maintenance training questionnaire (WMT-Q), administered before and after the intervention. DESIGN: Iterative development of an online version of the WMTP and implementation. SETTING: Online. PARTICIPANTS: 26 graduate and undergraduate students. INTERVENTION: Web-based training. These results are compared with those from another study of the in-person WMTP with 10 participants. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Feedback survey and WMT-Q. RESULTS: The training program was well-received and valued by all 26 participants. A significant increase in all scores after the online training program was found, based on pre-/post-intervention scores. In manual wheelchair open-ended questions, knowledge increased from 16% to 21%, p < .05; in power wheelchair open-ended questions, from 9% to 31%, p < .05; in multiple-choice questions related to knowledge, from 27% to 59%, p < .05; confidence increased from 8% to 80%, p < .05; and capacity from 12% to 88%, p < .05. There was no statistical difference in WMT-Q scores between individuals who participated in the in-person and online programs. CONCLUSION: This study indicates that there was a similar-increased knowledge for participants, indicating that web-based training may be a viable approach for delivering maintenance training.

Adapting ride-on toy cars as a tool to promote leisure: A feasibility study in Colombia.

Go Baby Go is a program at the University of Delaware that adapts ride-on toy cars for the recreation of children with disabilities. Colombia's health-care system faces many challenges in delivering early mobility devices to these children; thus, here (in Colombia), no dedicated programs such as Go Baby Go exist. In this study, we examined how feasible it would be to implement a Go Baby Go program in our country. Electronic and seating adaptations to the cars were made and described. We chose three participants from a pool of children with cerebral palsy (Gross Motor Function Classification System IV), according to a set of inclusion and exclusion criteria. Then, we measured theirs and their parent's level of satisfaction with the experience through a Likert scale. All of the parents described seeing their kids ride the adapted cars as "extremely fun". They also said that it is "extremely important" to have these devices close by so that their children can get involved in recreational activities.

Development and evaluation of a wheelchair service provision training of trainers programme.

BACKGROUND: In many countries, availability of basic training and continued professional development programmes in wheelchair services is limited. Therefore, many health professionals lack access to formal training opportunities and new approaches to improve wheelchair service provision. To address this need, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the WHO Wheelchair Service Training of Trainers Programme (WSTPt), aiming to increase the number of trainers who are well prepared to deliver the WHO Wheelchair Service Training Packages. Despite these efforts, there was no recognised method to prepare trainers to facilitate these training programmes in a standardised manner. OBJECTIVES: To understand if the WSTPt is an effective mechanism to train aspiring wheelchair service provision trainers. METHOD: An action research study was conducted using a mixed-methods approach to data collection and analysis to integrate feedback from questionnaires and focus groups from three WHO WSTPt pilots. RESULTS: Trainees were satisfied with the WHO WSTPt and the iterative process appears to have helped to improve each subsequent pilot and the final training package. CONCLUSION: The WHO WSTPt is an effective mechanism to train wheelchair service provision trainers. This programme has potential to increase the number of trainees and may increase the number of qualified service providers.