Overarching principles and salient findings for inclusion in guidelines for power mobility use within residential care facilities

Abstract

Although power mobility has many potential benefits for users, power mobility incidents and accidents are a serious concern. To date, little research has explored power mobility safety, and no gold standard exists to determine whether the user is a safe driver. As a possible alternative to a facility unilaterally imposing regulations on power mobility users, we conducted a research project in which power mobility users and other stakeholders used the Delphi method to develop guidelines for power mobility use within a residential facility setting. This article presents the overarching principles for power mobility use and noteworthy items from the safety guidelines that participants developed. These findings highlight the safety issues that are encountered in residential care settings and suggest some strategies to deal with them.