Free CE course for Adult Rehab and Geriatric Therapists

Our blog has been up and running for almost a year now……… where did that go???

Our blog has been very successful building a strong pediatric therapy community, and Acute Care community. We would like now to do the same for our Adult Rehab and Geriatric therapists, building a community that will serve you well, a place for you to share your ideas, challenges, solutions and to learn therapy tips from others. We would also like to be able offer a post course discussion for our acute care therapists, building on this new community.

We are offering you the opportunity to be entered into a drawing for a free CE course.
All you need to do is submit a blog entry which can be:
1. a clinical issue that you are seeking opinions about. 
2. a case problem relating to the field that you are struggling with. 
3. a therapy tip that you would like to share.
4. a professional practice issue 

The post can be of any length (up to 500 words) and photos and videos are great, as long as you have obtained written permission.

We will enter the first 30 blogs in a drawing for a free ERI course. 
Deadline for entry is May 10th 2013 – winner to be announced before the end of May

Please Post your entry here or visit our blog page and click on “Post Your Blog Here”, or email me; mwashington@educationresourcesinc.com

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and sharing them with our ERI community.

]]>

Welcome to PEDI-CAT – the new computer adaptive pediatric assessment tool

PEDI-CAT featured in the Advance for Physical Therapy and Rehab Medicine:

Making Advances in Pediatric Outcomes 
Using the Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Computer Adaptive Test (PEDI-CAT).

By Helene M. Dumas PT, MS, and Maria A. Fragala-Pinkham, PT, DPT, MS
Posted on: March 5, 2013

“The Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory (PEDI), originally published in 1992, has been revised as a computer adaptive test (CAT)-the PEDI-CAT.  The PEDI-CAT measures abilities in the three functional domains of Daily Activities, Mobility and Social/Cognitive.  The PEDI-CAT can be used across all clinical diagnoses and community settings.  As with the original paper-pencil PEDI, the PEDI-CAT can be administered by professional judgment of clinicians or educators who are familiar with the child or by parent report. This computerized adaptive version of the PEDI is intended to provide an accurate and precise assessment while increasing efficiency and reducing respondent burden……………..” www.pedicat.com

Helene Dumas and Maria Fragala-Pinkham are physical therapists and work in the Research Center at Franciscan Hospital for Children. They are the senior authors of the PEDI-CAT. Education Resources is thrilled to have them as faculty members and they will be presenting PEDI-CAT at our popular annual Therapies in the School November 21-22, 2013 – Framingham, MA. Look out for our brochure coming shortly.

]]>

Sensory Processing Disorder……. in Me!!!

Post from Barbara, Our Company Co-Founder

A recent bout with unexpected sunburn (are they ever expected?) left my back so “prickly” that it ruined an entire day and night of my island vacation. Prickly doesn’t really describe the agony I was in…it was more like someone was sticking pins into my back for hours. My sleep was interrupted almost hourly, despite aloe applications and Ibuprofen.

But the real eye opener was while I was in the throws of this agony, my poor, unsuspecting husband went to hold my hand, and I pulled my hand away. I just could not stand to be touched. I want to assure you that this is not my usual response. Any touch felt noxious at that point, and I wondered, “is this what is feels like to have a sensory processing disorder”? If so, how awful it must be for a child (or an adult for that matter) to live like this chronically!

After much experimentation, the only thing that helped this sensory barrage was being in a cool, dim room, and applying cool, damp washcloths to my back, nearly constantly. I couldn’t even concentrate enough to read the newspaper, no less a novel that required keeping track of each character and a complicated story line. 

While I do not recommend this method of understanding and becoming more compassionate with our clients with SPD, I did want to report the experience to all you therapists who deal with these issues. The take home message for me is that constant neutral sensory input does work, this disorder is  truly distracting, even in a mature CNS (well, I try to be mature most of the time), and OTs are truly saints! 

I would love to hear your thoughts on SPD and what you find works for calming and decreasing the sensation of noxious inputs for these children.

]]>

Leslie F. Davidson Recognized as a Career Visionary by TodayinOT

 

 

[caption id="attachment_919" align="alignright" width="132"]Leslie Davidson, PhD, OTR/L Leslie Davidson[/caption]

TodayinOT’s latest issue featured five “career visionary” occupational therapists for “expanding the boundaries of the profession” by contributing to society at large (TodayinOT, Volume 6, Issue 1, March 4, 2013). We’d like to congratulate Leslie F. Davidson, Education Resources Faculty, on the feature and recognition! You can check out the article here: TodayinOT 

You may also have heard that Leslie became the first OT to be appointed to the American Medical Association’s Current Procedural Terminology Editorial Panel last July, and is one of two non-physicians on the esteemed 17-member committee. We are thrilled to count Leslie among our faculty of experts. 

Leslie teaches: Traumatic Brain Injury: Maximizing Functional Outcomes which focuses on evidence-based rehabilitation strategies for survivors of mild and moderate traumatic brain injury. 

]]>

 

Posted in: News

 

Physical therapy can be as effective as surgery for torn meniscus

You may have heard that a clinical study recently published by The New England Journal of Medicine   found that physical therapy can be as effective as knee surgery for treating patients with a torn meniscus. The following physical therapy protocol was used in the study and is taken from The New England Journal of Medicine:

Physical Therapy

The physical-therapy protocol was developed by a team of experienced physical therapists. The protocol was based on literature supporting the effectiveness of land-based, individualized physical therapy with progressive home exercise for patients with knee osteoarthritis. The three-stage structured program was designed to address inflammation, range of motion, concentric and eccentric muscle strength, muscle-length restrictions, aerobic conditioning (e.g., with the use of a bicycle, elliptical machine, or treadmill), functional mobility, and proprioception and balance. Details of the physical-therapy program are described in Table Two in the Supplementary Appendix. Criteria for advancing from stage I to II and from stage II to III included the level of self-reported pain, observed strength, range of knee motion, knee effusion, and functional mobility. At each stage, it was recommended that the patient attend physical-therapy sessions once or twice weekly and perform exercises at home. Patients progressed at their own pace; the duration of participation varied depending on the pace of improvement. Generally, the program lasted about 6 weeks. 

Nearly 500,000 people undergo surgery each year to treat a torn meniscus. Many of these patients could seek physical therapy instead of surgery.

  • How do you treat these patients differently from when you see them post-op a meniscectomy?
  • If you use a similar protocol to that in the study have you experienced any problems with it?
  • Do you have any suggestions on how to generate more referrals for this condition?
  • Is there a need for education and training on treating patients with this condition?

We’d love to hear from you!

 

]]>