Things you will need to think about

Determine audience: are you teaching and evaluating students, new graduates, fieldwork coordinators, or a mix?

• Equipment required/optimal for delivery.
• Theoretical information, practical competencies for manual wheelchair skills & evaluation of clinical competencies.
• Educator expertise to deliver content.
• Clinician input.
• Determine implementation team, including but not limited to teaching assistants.
• Space/resources required and optimal.
• Identify delivery strategy (in-person; online; hybrid; knowledge/hands-on).
• Health systems framework.
• Consider national & international differences in terms of wheelchair education (where it’s given: classroom, internships, clinics, hospitals).
• Dedicated time by key stakeholders.

Ways to measure your goal

Things you will need to think about

• Need/desire for additional training, upgrading, proficiency – continuing education (and needs & resources to support this).
• Development of post-graduate networks, communities of practice, supports.
• User experience and satisfaction.

Ways to measure your goal

• Create needs assessment amongst staff to see if there are any identifiable gaps in knowledge or a desire for training in specific areas.

Resources and Strategies 

• Continuing education courses in wheeled seating and mobility.

Things you will need to think about

• Identify trainee levels (e.g., entry-to-practice; post-graduate; community-based training programs).
• Identify whether the training should be based on the WHO definitions of Basic or Intermediate Wheelchair Service Provision.
• How will the program be developed and sustained over time, and updated based on new research evidence (both informing content and pedagogy).
• What is the program vision?
• Advocate for and obtain commitment from organization and faculty.
• Map content with learning objectives.
• Set up context-specific evaluation criteria and monitoring system.

Ways to measure your goal

• Sustainability indicators to monitor, measure and respond to.
• Commitment statement and investment at organizational (Health service) and faculty (University/education provider) levels.
• Organization administration’s faculty monitoring procedure for sustaining program; criteria/metrics to support course going forward; minimum number to run program.

Resources and Strategies 

• Profile of Practice of OT in Canada (2012), which suggests a spectrum from competent to proficient.
• Brito et al. (2018). Indicators of Sustainability in Educational Practice: Perception of Teachers and Students of UAGro-Mexico.