Practices and views of occupational therapists in Nova Scotia regarding wheelchair-skills training for clients and their caregivers: an online survey

Abstract

Purpose: To determine the extent to which Occupational Therapists (OTs) in Nova Scotia (NS) conduct wheelchair skills training, the nature of training and the OTs’ perceptions on training.

Materials and methods: Anonymous online survey.

Results: We received 110 responses from OTs living in NS and involved in direct patient care, 96 (93%) of whom reported helping clients obtain manual wheelchairs. Of the OTs who responded to the question “…do you typically provide wheelchair-skills training…?”, 40 (43.5%) answered “Yes, usually” for clients and 40 (46.0%) for caregivers. The median duration of training sessions for clients and caregivers was 30 and 20 min; the median number of sessions was 2 and 1. Regarding the importance of training, 65 (73.9%) OTs answered “Very important” and 22 (25%) “Somewhat important” for clients and 55 (64.0%) answered “Very important” and 29 (33.7%) “Somewhat important” for caregivers. About one-third of OTs considered themselves adequately prepared for the trainer role. A variety of barriers and facilitators to training were identified. Trainers were significantly more likely than non-trainers to consider wheelchair skills training as important (p = .0003 for clients and p = .0039 for caregivers) and to consider themselves adequately prepared for the trainer role (p = .002 for clients and .003 for caregivers).

Conclusions: Only a minority of NS OTs usually provide wheelchair-skills training for clients or their caregivers and the training provided is minimal, despite a majority who consider such training to be important. Only about one-third of OTs feel prepared for the training role.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Only a minority of Occupational Therapists (OTs) in Nova Scotia, Canada usually provide wheelchair-skills training for clients or their caregivers.

• The training that is provided is minimal.

• A majority of OTs consider such training to be important.

• Only about one-third of OTs feel prepared for the training role.

Keywords:

• Rehabilitation
• occupational therapy
• wheelchairs
• motor skills
• training
• surveys and questionnaires

Acknowledgements

We thank Randi Agnete Munroe, BSc, BScOT, MHS and Joy Boyce, BScOT, BA Hons for their assistance in distributing the survey and Andrew Stanley Doiron, MEng (Mechanical) for assistance with the graphic presentation of the results.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability

The data set for this survey can be accessed by contacting the corresponding author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Nova Scotia Health Authority Research Fund [Grant #893363].