Individuals with spinal cord injuries who use a wheelchair for full time mobility are at high risk for developing upper limb pain and dysfunction, which can negatively impact functional mobility and quality of life. Due to the detrimental effects, the Consortium for Spinal Cord Medicine and the Paralyzed Veterans of America developed a clinical practice guideline (CPG) to educate clinicians on upper limb preservation methods. Past research has found that passive implementation of a CPG does not change clinical practice and a structured program is needed for effective education. In this dissertation, we have developed a strict protocol to implement the CPG and performed a randomized clinical trial to determine if new wheelchair users who were strictly educated on the CPG have better functional mobility skills, wheelchair characteristics and lower pain. During the course of the study, we found no objective method to evaluate the quality of a transfer. Therefore, an original outcome measure was developed. We evaluated the tool and found that it is safe, can be completed in a short amount of time and has a wide range of reliability and validity. Refinements are necessary, but the tool fills a substantial void in the area of transfer evaluation. The newly created outcome measure was used to evaluate the transfer skills of participants in the randomized trial. A trend in the data found that participants who were strictly educated on the CPG performed better transfers at six months post discharge. The same group of participants was evaluated on wheelchair set up, selection and manual wheelchair propulsion skills. No differences were found between groups based on wheelchair set up and selection; however those strictly educated on the CPG propelled with significantly lower normalized peak resultant forces at six months post discharge. Finally, results found that individuals who were strictly educated on the CPG reported higher pain during movement activities at six months post discharge, although this may be due to increased awareness. The new outcome measure and structured education program are important tools to improve care provided during acute rehabilitation for full time wheelchair users with spinal cord injuries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:PITT/oai:PITTETD:etd-07232010-174605 |
| Date | 19 August 2010 |
| Creators | McClure, Laura Ann |
| Contributors | Michael Boninger, Alicia Koontz, Lee Kirby, Rory Cooper, Mark Schmeler |
| Publisher | University of Pittsburgh |
| Source Sets | University of Pittsburgh |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.library.pitt.edu/ETD/available/etd-07232010-174605/ |
| Rights | restricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University of Pittsburgh or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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