Final Year Students’ Knowledge on Basic Manual Wheelchair Provision: The State of Occupational Therapy Programs in Colombia

Abstract

Access to personal mobility is a human right and as such, it implies the provision of wheelchair services for those with mobility impairments that need one. Lack of appropriately trained personnel is a major contributor to the gap in access to wheelchairs. Assistive technology provision is one of the core competencies of occupational therapists. The goal of this study was to assess the current wheelchair provision knowledge of final year occupational therapy students in Colombia as measured by the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals Basic Wheelchair Service Knowledge Test. A total of 83 students from 7 universities took the test. None of the students met the 70% passing threshold. The highest scores were in the assessment domain while the lowest in the fitting and user training domains. These results suggest that the current wheelchair provision education received in these programs do not meet the World Health Organization guidelines on appropriate wheelchair provision. The implementation of strategies to improve current wheelchair provision education in Colombian occupational therapy programs is granted.

Wheelchair service provision education in Canadian occupational therapy programs

“…Only six programs utilized on-line modules, primarily for the Assessment step. There appears to be considerable opportunity yet for programs to leverage on-line and asynchronous learning strategies to supplement or support the lecture and lab components of wheelchair-related content, as has been proposed in several publications [ 20 , 22 ]. It is possible that programs may have begun developing these types of resources during the COVID pandemic [ 50 , 51 ],which occurred subsequent to most of the survey responses.…”

“…In low- and lower-middle income countries, ~75% of programs lack any content on wheelchair provision [ 14 ]. In Colombian occupational therapy (n = 7) [ 22 ] and physical therapy (n = 2) programs [ 23 ], student (n = 199) knowledge does not align with the WHO 8-step wheelchair service provision process. Programs in Romania [ 24 ] and the Philippines [ 25 ] have identified a need to improve wheelchair service provision in their rehabilitation programs.…”

Psychometric properties of the International Society of Wheelchair Professionals’ basic manual wheelchair-service-provision knowledge Test Version 1 and development of Version 2

“…More than two-thirds of test-takers passed the test in their first attempt of the ISWP Basic Test Version 1 in English. This passing rate differs from the common perception of the need for more wheelchair-service-provision training worldwide [ 30 ] and the robust evidence reporting limited competency and education among entry-to-practice rehabilitation students [ 7 , 8 , 31 ] and clinicians [ 2 , 6 , 9 , 32 ]. It could be assumed that the high passing rates reflect a homogeneous and highly educated group on wheelchair-service-provision.…”

Developing of Multidimensional Perspectives Checklist of Professionalism for Undergraduate Occupational Therapy Students in Assistive Technology Service: Delphi Study

“…However, little mention is made of assistive technology services’ training and learning effectiveness. Therefore, research in AT service is necessary to support the need for occupational therapy programs to reexamine the content of AT training [ 42 , 43 ]. The Taiwan Occupational Therapy Association [ 44 ] highlighted that career development is required for beginners and experts across clinical fields to improve competencies and professionalism.…”