The purpose of this article is to report the development and psychometric testing of the Edmonton Functional Assessment Tool (EFAT). The EFAT was developed as a functional outcome measure for use with a palliative care population. The assessment identified ten functional activities important to patients even in the terminal stage of their illness. In addition, a global performance status rating (PS) asked for an overall judgment of functional status after the ten EFAT functions were evaluated. Tests for interrater reliability and concurrent validity were conducted on a sample of 25 inpatients on the Palliative Care Unit (PCU) at the Edmonton General Hospital (EGH) who were evaluated independently by two raters. Interrater reliability of the EFAT expressed as an intraclass correlation (ICC) was established at 0.88. The interrater reliability of these two raters was 0.71 for the Karnofsky Performance Status (KPS) and 0.81 for the performance status measure of the Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG). Concurrent validity of the EFAT was demonstrated by correlating the total EFAT score with the KPS (r = -0.79, P = 0.0001) and the ECOG (r = 0.85, P = 0.0001). The total EFAT score was also strongly correlated with the global PS rating scale (r = 0.90, P = 0.0001). Construct validity of the EFAT was tested with a sample of 101 patients admitted to the unit, which was later divided into the unit group (N = 88) and the home group (N = 13). Our findings provided initial evidence that the EFAT distinguished between the functional status of these two groups. The results of this preliminary study suggest that the EFAT requires further research and development, but shows potential to evolve as a useful clinical tool in palliative care.
The purpose of this study was to determine the learning styles and problem-solving ability of physiotherapy students. The subjects were 158 students from years 2 to 4 of a baccalaureate physiotherapy programme. All subjects completed the Kolb Learning Style Inventory ( LSI) and were classified into one of four learning styles. They also completed the Heppner Problem Solving Inventory ( PSI) , for which a total score and three subscale scores were calculated. Chi-square and one-way analyses of variance were used to determine differences between years for the LSI and PSI respectively. The association between the PSI and LSI was determined with an eta coefficient. The majority of students had the preferred learning style of`assimilator' or`converger' . The scores on the PSI were similar to those reported for other undergraduate students, and were not related to learning style. There were no significant differences between years for the LSI or the PSI score. We conclude that physiotherapy students in a baccalaureate programme prefer a learning style in which they combine abstract conceptualisation ( thinking) with either reflective observation ( watching and listening) or active experimentation ( doing) . Neither learning style nor perceived problem-solving ability was different across years.
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