EVALUATION OF A COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE APPROACH TO CONTINUING PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN EQUIPMENT PROVISION

Background: Changes in service delivery models for people with a disability have produced new challenges for therapists working in rural areas of South Australia. A team at educators were commissioned to develop and evaluate... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
Changes in service delivery models for people with a disability have produced new challenges for therapists working in rural areas of South Australia. A team at educators were commissioned to develop and evaluate learning materials to improve the knowledge and skills of health professionals in the provision of equipment to children with a disability. Emphasis was placed on developing professional reasoning and using a community of practice approach.
Method:
Participants who agreed to trial at least one of the four learning modules completed pre- and post- questionnaires related to knowledge, preferred ways of learning and working, as well as evaluating the usefulness of the materials. Survey data were analysed with descriptive statistics. We also conducted a focus group and interviews which were analysed thematically
Results:
Fifteen of the twenty-seven therapists who engaged in the learning participated in the evaluation. The majority were within a few years of graduation and were female. Not all participants had completed a module. Feedback about the modules was quite mixed perhaps reflecting different learning styles.
Conclusion:
Several modules need some revision based on the feedback from the therapists. The key issue appears to be the length of time needed to complete and fitting that in to workload.
Application to Practice:
Assistive technology is a rapidly changing field with emergence of new technologies. Continuing education that relies on teaching prescription techniques for specific technology examples, rather than processes based approaches, risks being rapidly redundant. Robust processes of evaluation will enhance future learning experiences.