Developing a Program for Advanced Occupational Therapist Practice in Amputation Care

Throughout the conflicts of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, military medicine changed significantly. The greatest developments were the pivotal advancements in emergency medicine which saved the lives of many service members who sustained complex limb trauma and other forms of polytrauma. These developments led to changes in training, policy and other systemic advancements. However, the parallel advancements in post-acute treatment and rehabilitation of individuals with significant limb trauma did not result in the development of training, policy and systematic advancement. To mitigate this gap, the Extremity Trauma and Amputation Center of Excellence initiated the development of knowledge, skills, and abilities (KSAs) for rehabilitation specialists. This article focuses on the development of KSAs and learning objectives for occupational therapists who are providing traumatic amputation care.

The authors used a pseudo-Delphi method of literature review and internal subject matter expert (SME) interviews with consensus achieved through adjudication of comments, feedback to commenters, and agreed upon language. The SMEs converted 57 identified competencies and28 2014 Clinical Practice Guidelines (CPG) recommendations into the OT specific KSAs. After completion of draft documents, external experts reviewed the materials with a repeat of the process.

The result was a total of 290 KSAs developed across four clinical topic areas: (1) individual and multiple limb loss, (2) medical management, (3) other orthopedic injury, and (4) military other. The final Program document had 23 instructional modules with 28 terminal learning objectives and 231 enabling learning objectives.

The KSAs and learning objectives presented here are the first steps in the process of understanding essential OT advanced amputation rehabilitation clinical and operational standards. Creating a formal limb loss rehabilitation training protocol that identifies rehabilitation needs for individuals with all levels of limb loss will ensure we are ready for the next influx of SMs who sustained amputations. The educational offerings to be derived from this Program will allow competency assessment, enduring education, and a platform upon which further mastery can be developed.