At the beginning of September the ICRC ran an advanced course on amputee rehabilitation. The course was designed to develop practical skills on top of theoretical knowledge that had previously been acquired through qualifying education, the Physiopedia online course (MOOC), and field work.
Amputee rehabilitation is only taught minimally in pre-registration physiotherapy education. Over many years of working in this field the ICRC has developed expertise and produced a standard manual describing basic rehabilitation principles and methods. In 2015, in collaboration with Physiopedia, the ICRC conducted an online course on ‘Management of the Lower Limb Amputee’. Over 4000 individuals engaged with the course and around 1000 individuals successfully completed the course.
ICRC’s objective for the online course was to develop a course that could provide a consistent level of theoretical knowledge in the workforce before complementing this training with locally delivered advanced practical skills training on lower limb amputee rehabilitation. The practical skills training was then based on previously acquired knowledge from the field work of the participants’ respective assignments and from the 2015 MOOC. The five day course was aimed to refresh the basic knowledge on amputation, assessment, clinical decision making & prescription and pre-fitting physiotherapy before focusing on the gait issues and reflective practice in collaboration with the prosthetists and orthotists for an interdisciplinary approach. The course objectives were to:
⦁ use clinical reasoning to assess and treat lower limb amputees;
⦁ understand better the P&O interventions in order to improve interdisciplinary interaction;
⦁ examine complex cases and propose adequate physiotherapy rehabilitation;
⦁ use adequate outcome measures to describe physiotherapy interventions;
⦁ propose innovative ideas to manage this population within a global approach;
⦁ share respective experience and concerns.
Barbara Rau, physiotherapy coordinator at ICRC, said that “ the course proved to be useful and effective in field orientation and onboarding for all physiotherapists. The intensely packed one week programme allowed a forum for knowledge exchange and an opportunity to ask questions about amputee rehabilitation and prosthetic management.” ICRC plan to offer a wider benefit from this course by translating the course to French and also running similar courses with Physical Therapy departments in Middle East.
If you are interested in running a local practical skills training course for your physiotherapists based on this new ICRC course then please do get in touch.