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

Abstract

BackgroundIn 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.ObjectivesTo understand if the WSTPt is an effective mechanism to train aspiring wheelchair service provision trainers.MethodAn 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.ResultsTrainees were satisfied with the WHO WSTPt and the iterative process appears to have helped to improve each subsequent pilot and the final training package.ConclusionThe 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.

Implementation of the hybrid course on basic wheelchair service provision for Colombian wheelchair service providers

“…Participants reported overall high levels of satisfaction after the training intervention in the five sub-domains of the satisfaction survey: Interaction, instructor, instruction methodology, content, and technology. One element that may be a contributing factor to participants’ satisfaction was that the facilitators had previously been trained in the WHO WSTP-Trainer’s package which takes into consideration important adult learning strategies [ 42 ]. In addition, the facilitators were from the local context which suggests that they are more familiar with contextual issues and able to tailor the training [ 66 ].…”

“…They were a physical therapist, a biomedical engineer, and a physical medicine and rehabilitation doctor. The first two participated in a training of trainers course specific to the WHO WSTP [ 42 ]. The physiatrist had more than 10 years of experience in wheelchair provision and also received training as a trainer in the International Classification of Functioning, Disability, and Health [ 43 ].…”

Development of a toolkit for educators of the wheelchair service provision process: the Seating and Mobility Academic Resource Toolkit (SMART)

“…Current approaches to providing education and training to wheelchair service providers include formal and informal methods by several different entities, including universities, non-governmental organizations, and humanitarian organizations [10]. The recently proposed systematic approach to training assistive technology personnel identified the need for basic competence across a range of devices at the community level, followed by specialization of personnel in product groups, including personal mobility devices such as wheelchairs [11].…”

“…This method aligns with both the Wheelchair Service Provider Certification process offered by the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals (ISWP) [12], as well as evolving health care professional education standards [13]. As various approaches to education and training, as well as evaluation of competency are studied and evolve, the variability in the content and curricula that is taught, the methods and pedagogic approaches used to teach the material, and how knowledge and level of competency is evaluated has become apparent [10,[14][15][16][17].…”

Editorial

“…The topic of high-quality and affordable wheelchairs (domain 3) is covered in several articles, including the works by Rispin, Huff and Wee ( 2017 ), Rispin, Hamm and Wee ( 2017 ) and Mhatre, Martin and McCambridge ( 2017 ) who describe a tool to measure the condition of wheelchairs, Mhatre, Ott and Pearlman ( 2017 ) who describe new standardised test methods to ensure wheelchairs are reliable, Stanfill and Jensen ( 2017 ) who describe field evaluation and Onguti et al ( 2017 ) who describe a model for design competitions. Human resources for the assistive technology sector (domain 4) is the focus of several manuscripts, including the works by Fung et al ( 2017 ) who describe an opportunity for integrating wheelchair services training into academic programmes worldwide, Norris ( 2017 ) who describes the benefits of peer training for wheelchair users and Munera et al ( 2017 ) who describe the development of wheelchair services training of trainers programme being published by the WHO. The manuscript by Kamaraj et al ( 2017 ) provides a conceptual framework for assessing the need and impact of wheelchair services provision based on a range of variables and fits within domain 5.…”