Patient handling methods taught in occupational therapy curricula

Area of Science:

• Occupational therapy
• Healthcare education
• Patient handling safety

Background:

• Manual patient handling techniques pose a significant risk of injury to occupational therapists, with 16% of full-time therapists experiencing such injuries.
• Current occupational therapy curricula vary in their emphasis on traditional manual patient handling versus newer, safer methods.
• A need exists to understand educational practices and behavioral influences driving curriculum content in patient transfer training.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the extent to which traditional manual patient handling and safe patient handling methods are taught in occupational therapy programs.
• To identify the key behavioral constructs from the Theory of Planned Behavior that predict educators' intentions regarding curriculum content for patient transfers.
• To inform strategies for shifting educational standards towards safer patient handling practices.

Main Methods:

• Development and administration of a Theory of Planned Behavior self-report questionnaire to occupational therapy educators.
• Investigation of current teaching practices for both traditional manual patient handling and safe patient handling.
• Application of stepwise regression analysis to determine predictors of intention to teach different transfer methods as the standard of practice.

Main Results:

• Most occupational therapy programs teach both manual and safe patient handling methods.
• Only 22% of programs teach safe patient handling as the standard of practice.
• Attitude and perceived behavioral control best predict the intention to continue teaching manual transfers, while normative belief and attitude best predict the intention to teach safe patient handling.

Conclusions:

• Understanding the specific behavioral predictors for each teaching intention is crucial for curriculum development.
• Targeted educational strategies can be developed to promote a paradigm shift towards teaching safe patient handling as the standard.
• This research provides insights into fostering safer patient transfer education in occupational therapy.