Preliminary evidence to support a "boot camp" approach to wheelchair skills training for clinicians

Abstract

Objective: To evaluate the impact of providing intensive large-group training on wheelchair-specific self-efficacy and skill capacity among occupational therapy students.

Design: Intervention study using before-after trial.

Setting: Universities.

Participants: Volunteer sample of master of occupational therapy students (N=65).

Interventions: Two instructors provided a total of 4.5 hours of wheelchair skills training to groups of 14 to 19 students in a boot camp format, which included a brief lecture, instruction, demonstration, and hands-on practice.

Main outcome measures: Wheelchair skill capacity (Wheelchair Skills Test Questionnaire [WST-Q]), with scores ranging from 0 to 64, and wheelchair-specific self-efficacy (Wheelchair Use Confidence Scale for Manual Wheelchair Users [WheelCon-M]), with scores ranging from 0 to 10.

Results: At postintervention, the mean WST-Q score increased by 24.7 (95% confidence interval, 22.1-27.3; P=.000), reflecting a 38.6% improvement (Cohen d=2.8). The mean WheelCon-M score improved by 3.0 (95% confidence interval, 2.5-3.3; P=.000).

Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study to measure and demonstrate improvement in wheelchair-specific self-efficacy among student clinicians. Participants demonstrated substantively larger improvements and acquired more advanced skills than previous studies using shorter training sessions with smaller groups. This study provides evidence for using a boot camp format as an effective strategy to increase occupational therapy students' confidence and skill with wheelchair mobility, preparing them to place greater emphasis on, and achieve better success in, training future clients.

Keywords: Education; Occupational therapy; Rehabilitation; Self efficacy; Wheelchairs.