A multifaceted continuing professional development intervention to move stroke rehabilitation guidelines into...

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Rehabilitation Medicine
• Health Professions Education

Background:

• Effective post-stroke rehabilitation is crucial for optimizing patient recovery and functional outcomes.
• Implementing best practice guidelines is essential for improving the quality of stroke care.
• Continuing professional development (CPD) is a key strategy for enhancing healthcare professionals' knowledge and skills.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the feasibility of a CPD intervention designed to increase the adoption of stroke best practice guidelines.
• To evaluate the impact of the CPD intervention on physiotherapists, occupational therapists, and speech-language pathologists.
• To inform the design of future research programs focused on evidence-based stroke rehabilitation.

Main Methods:

• A 24-week email-based CPD intervention delivering stroke best practice recommendations and reflective tools.
• Inclusion criteria: practicing clinicians with over one year of stroke rehabilitation experience, fluent in English or French, and basic computer literacy.
• Feasibility, satisfaction, relevance, cognitive impact, perceived application, and expected patient outcomes were measured using questionnaires and analyzed with descriptive statistics.

Main Results:

• 62 out of 133 eligible clinicians (47% participation rate) completed the study.
• Satisfaction, relevance, and cognitive impact varied by discipline and recommendation, with high agreement across all groups.
• Recommendations for post-stroke depression, fatigue, and patient/caregiver learning needs were most relevant; most clinicians intended to apply them, expecting patient health benefits.

Conclusions:

• The study demonstrated the feasibility of assessing CPD intervention impact on stroke rehabilitation guideline uptake.
• The findings provide valuable insights for designing future research to promote evidence-based stroke rehabilitation interventions.
• This approach can help bridge the gap between research evidence and clinical practice in stroke care.