Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Mar 1;21(1):103.
doi: 10.1186/s12887-021-02564-9.

Adapting the Wheelchair Skills Program for pediatric rehabilitation: recommendations from key stakeholders

Geneviève Daoust  1   2 , Paula W Rushton  3   4 , Marissa Racine  1 , Karolann Leduc  1 , Najoua Assila  2   5 , Louise Demers  1   6
Affiliations

Adapting the Wheelchair Skills Program for pediatric rehabilitation: recommendations from key stakeholders

Geneviève Daoust et al. BMC Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: Backed by over 20 years of research development, the Wheelchair Skills Program (WSP) has proven to be a safe and effective program to improving wheelchair skills for adult wheelchair users. However, evidence is lacking for the pediatric population, which may help to explain the limited use of the WSP in pediatric settings. While additional evidence specific to the pediatric population is needed, concurrent implementation of the WSP into pediatric clinical practice is equally prudent to allow those users to benefit from the years of accumulated WSP evidence. To facilitate implementation of evidence-based programs into practice, adaptation is also often required to improve the fit between the program and the local context. Therefore, the objective of this study was to understand what adaptations, if any, are required for the WSP to be implementable in a pediatric setting.

Methods: A deductive qualitative descriptive study design was used, guided by the Knowledge to Action Framework and Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR). Occupational Therapists (OTs) from a pediatric rehabilitation center and two specialized schools in Montreal, Canada were invited to participate in a 90-min focus group. The Framework Method was followed for the data analysis.

Results: One focus group in each site (n = 3) was conducted with a total of 19 participants. From the OTs' perspectives, our analysis revealed benefits of WSP use and various issues (e.g. some skills seem unrealistic) affecting its uptake in relation to the constructs of the CFIR Intervention Characteristics domain. The results provided guidance for the recommendations of adaptations (e.g. addition of a caregiver assistance score) to enhance implementation of the WSP in pediatric rehabilitation settings and helped to identify the need for the production of new knowledge and knowledge translation (KT) tools.

Conclusions: Implementation of the WSP with the adaptations and KT tools proposed could allow pediatric manual wheelchair users to improve their wheelchair skills.

Keywords: Consolidated framework for implementation research, qualitative studies; Knowledge-to-action; Occupational therapy; Pediatric rehabilitation; Wheelchair skills program.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Knowledge to Action framework. Introduction Knowledge translation: What it is and what it isn’t. Knowledge Translation in Health Care 2013. p. 1–13. Reproduced with permission of John Wiley and Sons
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Anderson D, Campos J, Witherington D, Dahl A, Rivera M, He M, Uchiyama I, Barbu-Roth M. The role of locomotion in psychological development. Front Psychol. 2013;4(440):1–17. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3719016/pdf/fpsyg-04-00440.pdf. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Campos JJ, Anderson DI, Barbu-Roth MA, Hubbard EM, Hertenstein MJ, Witherington D. Travel broadens the mind. Infancy. 2000;1(2):149–219. doi: 10.1207/S15327078IN0102_1. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Palisano RJ, Tieman BL, Walter SD, Bartlett DJ, Rosenbaum PL, MSc DR, Hanna SE. Effect of environmental setting on mobility methods of children with cerebral palsy. Dev Med Child Neurol. 2003;45(2):113–120. doi: 10.1111/j.1469-8749.2003.tb00914.x. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Rodby-Bousquet E, Hägglund G. Use of manual and powered wheelchair in children with cerebral palsy: a cross-sectional study. BMC Pediatr. 2010;10:59. doi: 10.1186/1471-2431-10-59. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kirby RL, Rushton PW, Smith C, Routhier F, Best KL, Boyce J, Cowan R, Giesbrecht E, Kenyon LK, Koontz A, et al. Wheelchair Skills Program Manual Version 5.0. Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada: Published electronically at Dalhousie University; 2019.

Publication types