CREATIVE TEACHING & LEARNING TO INTEGRATE TECHNOLOGY IN CLINICAL PRACTICE: A NECESSITY TO ADVANCE PHYSIOTHERAPY IN THE 21ST CENTURY

R. Latz¹, A.N Chaudry²

Background: There is little doubt that technology in its varied forms has revolutionized the practice of healthcare in many ways to help yield better patient/client outcomes. Through the use of technology, distances between the patients/clients and healthcare professionals (HCPs) seems to have disappeared making HCPs and healthcare services more accessible to patients/clients than ever before. This revolution, while positive in many aspects, has generated its own unique set of challenges for HCPs. Knowledge of these challenges and how to overcome them is incumbent for sound professional practice. However, current education on the proper use of technology to prevent risk of harm for the patient is lacking, thereby subjecting physiotherapists and employers to unnecessary professional liability.

Purpose: Provide a two-fold interactive and engaging mechanism to educate physiotherapists about current technologies in the clinic, checking out and understanding proper use, internalizing ethical considerations related to that use, and brainstorming innovative ways of using technology appropriately.

Methods: A pre-presentation informal inquiry of physiotherapists was conducted. This revealed widespread use of varied clinical technology with little or no consideration towards educating self or others on the challenges in using varied technologies. Thus, firstly, a unique multi-format presentation was created and delivered in a classroom in an interactive manner at a national physiotherapist conference. The multi-format presentation included a unique combination of (i) a power-point presentation on ethical clinical applications of varied technologies (ii) dissection of clinically based technology-related case scenarios (iii) question/answer sessions after each scenario, (iv) panel discussions and (v) one-on-one engagement with attendees post-presentation. Secondly, attendees participated in a subsequent display of technologies with opportunity for hands on exposure to the technology outside the classroom in an exhibit area. This provided attendees the option to meet with technology vendors to learn additional specific technical information. These technologies included very new/developing equipment as well as older technologies being used in new ways. Additional encouragement to attend included the opportunity to win prizes specifically related to these technologies.  

Results: Post-course evaluation rating of the first multi-format presentation was ‘4.8’ on a 0-5 scale on the response “overall session was valuable.” The presenters were also present at the technology displays in the exhibit area outside the classroom and answered many specific questions posed by individual attendees which were positively received. The rewards mechanism also proved to attract additional participants to the technology exhibits.  

Conclusion(s): The unique combination of the interactive multi-format presentation and technology exhibit was an effective mechanism to educate and empower physiotherapist attendees with strategies to enhance proper use of technology in clinical practice.  The chance to experiment with the technologies and immediately ask questions created an opportunity for ‘just in time’ learning. In addition to maximizing appeal, this presentation also bridged didactic learning with clinical relevance while interjecting diverse teaching strategies to appeal to a wide range of learners.  

Implications: The creative teaching & learning combination described above can be adapted for use by any facility desirous of training its clinician in skillful use of technology especially now during the COVID-19 pandemic for best physiotherapy practice.  

Funding, acknowledgements: Attendees paid to attend national conference.

Keywords: Clinical Technology, Creative Teaching, Professional Development

Topic: Education: methods of teaching & learning

Did this work require ethics approval? No

Institution: APTA HPA The Catalyst

Committee: HPA Tech SIG

Reason: Innovative combination of strategies allowing freedom of choice for attendees.