Practices and views of occupational therapists in Nova Scotia regarding wheelchair-skills training for clients and their caregivers: an online survey

Purpose:To determine the extent to which Occupational Therapists (OTs) in Nova Scotia (NS) conduct wheelchair skills training, the nature of training and the OTs' perceptions on training. Materials and methods:Anonymous online survey. Results:We received 110 responses from OTs living in NS and involved in direct patient care, 96 (93%) of whom reported helping clients obtain manual wheelchairs. Of the OTs who responded to the question " horizontal ellipsis do you typically provide wheelchair-skills training horizontal ellipsis ?", 40 (43.5%) answered "Yes, usually" for clients and 40 (46.0%) for caregivers. The median duration of training sessions for clients and caregivers was 30 and 20 min; the median number of sessions was 2 and 1. Regarding the importance of training, 65 (73.9%) OTs answered "Very important" and 22 (25%) "Somewhat important" for clients and 55 (64.0%) answered "Very important" and 29 (33.7%) "Somewhat important" for caregivers. About one-third of OTs considered themselves adequately prepared for the trainer role. A variety of barriers and facilitators to training were identified. Trainers were significantly more likely than non-trainers to consider wheelchair skills training as important (p = .0003 for clients andp = .0039 for caregivers) and to consider themselves adequately prepared for thetrainer role (p = .002 for clients and .003 for caregivers). Conclusions:Only a minority of NS OTs usually provide wheelchair-skills training for clients or their caregivers and the training provided is minimal, despite a majority who consider such training to be important. Only about one-third of OTs feel prepared for the training role. IMPLICATIONS FOR REHABILITATION Only a minority of Occupational Therapists (OTs) in Nova Scotia, Canada usually provide wheelchairskills training for clients or their caregivers. The training that is provided is minimal. A majority of OTs consider such training to be important. Only about one-third of OTs feel prepared for the training role.