Simulated disability exercises and their impact on attitudes toward persons with disabilities

Enhancing Occupational Therapy Students' Knowledge, Competence, Awareness, and Interest in Accessibility

OBJECTIVE/BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to assess whether the incorporation of an environmental assessment for accessibility, as part of an "Activity Analysis" course, would enhance new students' knowledge, competence, awareness, and interest in accessibility issues for people with disabilities.

METHODS

In this research, we included an out-of-class training of environmental assessment for accessibility. One hundred and two 1st-year occupational therapy students at Tel Aviv University participated in this research. Of the 102 participants, 56 experienced the training and 46 did not but attended the regular Activity Analysis course. The students explored a typical community environment, during which a specific checklist was used for assessing levels of accessibility. The "Accessibility-Knowledge Competence Awareness and Interests" questionnaire was administered before and after the course to both groups.

RESULTS

Students who participated in the out-of-class training showed significant increases in their knowledge, competence, and partial awareness of accessibility and also had better grades in two separate courses that required knowledge of accessibility. There was no significant difference in the results of the Accessibility-Knowledge Competence Awareness and Interests before and after the Activity Analysis course in the control group.

CONCLUSION

The findings of the current study support the contribution of teaching 1st-year occupational therapy students the principles and practices of accessibility for people with disabilities, by improving their knowledge and level of competence at this early stage of their professional lives. Further studies are needed, however, to determine the optimal course of implementation in order to enhance awareness and interest in the subject of accessibility.

Disability in cultural competency pharmacy education

Improving health care providers' knowledge and ability to provide culturally competent care can limit the health disparities experienced by disadvantaged populations. As racial and ethnic cultures dominate cultural competency topics in education, alternative cultures such as disability have consistently been underrepresented. This article will make the case that persons with disabilities have a unique cultural identity, and should be addressed as an important component of cultural competency education in pharmacy schools. Examples of efforts in pharmacy education to incorporate cultural competency components are highlighted, many of which contain little or no mention of disability issues. Based on initiatives from other health professions, suggestions and considerations for the development of disability education within pharmacy curricula also are proposed.

Effects of short-term awareness interventions on children's attitudes toward peers with a disability

The purpose of this study was to explore the effect of two awareness activities on children's attitudes towards peers with a disability. The Children's Attitudes towards Peers with Disability scale including cognitive, behavioral and emotional subscales was administered before and after two types of short-term interventions. The first included 75 children from grades 7-9, who actively participated in the workshop simulating movement activities. The second intervention included 121 students of the 10th grade, who observed their peers participating in a wheelchair-basketball activity together with elite wheelchair-basketball players. Results indicated significant effects in the cognitive and behavioral domains. Post-test findings confirmed that intervention bridged the difference in the cognitive domain observed between those with and without previous contact at pretest.

Cross-cultural differences in preference for recovery of mobility among spinal cord injury rehabilitation professionals

STUDY DESIGN

Direct observation of a constrained consensus-building process in three culturally independent five-person panels of rehabilitation professionals from the US, Italy and Canada.

OBJECTIVES

To illustrate cultural differences in belief among rehabilitation professionals about the relative importance of alternative functional goals during spinal cord injury (SCI) rehabilitation.

SETTING

Spinal Cord Injury Units in Philadelphia-USA, Rome-Italy and Vancouver-Canada.

METHODS

Each of the three panels came to independent consensus about recovery priorities in SCI utilizing the features resource trade-off game. The procedure involves trading imagined levels of independence (resources) across different functional items (features) assuming different stages of recovery.

RESULTS

Sphincter management was of primary importance to all three groups. The Italian and Canadian rehabilitation professionals, however, showed preference for walking over wheelchair mobility at lower stages of assumed recovery, whereas the US professionals set wheelchair independence at a higher priority than walking.

CONCLUSIONS

These preliminary results suggest cross-cultural recovery priority differences among SCI rehabilitation professionals. These dissimilarities in preference may reflect disparities in values, cultural expectations and health care policies.

Atitudes de adultos com deficiência física frente ao idoso, à velhice pessoal e a pessoas com deficiência física

O objetivo foi analisar atitudes em relação ao individuo portador de deficiência física, ao idoso e à própria velhice em 242 adultos de 24 a 39 anos, portadores de deficiência física congênita (6,4%) ou adquirida. Apenas 4,5% eram dependentes para AVDs, conforme o Barthel Index; 36,0% usavam auxílios ortopédicos. Sendo 65,3% mulheres; 47,0%, casados, 53,3% tinham oito anos de escolaridade, 35,0% , 9 a 11 e 7,0% , mais de 11. Foram submetidos a quatro escalas diferenciais Semânticas com 30 itens e quatro fatores cada (agência, cognição, relações sociais e persona). A análise de dados evidenciou que eles avaliaram mais positivamente o conceito de adulto portador de deficiência física do que o de idoso. Quanto mais antiga a convivência com a deficiência, mais positivas as atitudes em relação à velhice pessoal. Os dados são sugestivos do papel desempenhado pelos processos de auto-regulação do self no manejo das conseqüências da incapacidade física sobre a vida pessoal e social.

Positively influencing student nurse attitudes toward caring for elders: results of a curriculum assessment study

Exposure to gerontological content has been shown to positively influence student attitudes toward elders. Our School of Nursing recently phased out one curriculum while implementing a new integrated curriculum. In the former, aging content was presented in a first-semester senior course. In the new curriculum, students were introduced to aging concepts in first-semester junior courses and additional content was integrated throughout the program. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the new integrated curriculum compared to the former in positively influencing attitudes toward caring for elders. An attitudes questionnaire was administered at 3 time points to students in each curriculum. Both groups, but particularly the integrated group, demonstrated statistically significant improvements in attitudes over time.

The effect of curriculum on the attitudes of nursing students toward disability

Societal attitudes toward people with differing abilities are often based on a lack of understanding, fear of the unkNown, and stereotypes learned from others. Nursing students enter their educational programs with similar attitudes and experiences. Attitudes of nurses are key to how they respond toward individuals with disabilities and chronic illnesses. The nurses' attitudes affect the individual client's understanding of the disability and his or her self-concept as he or she adjusts to major life changes. The purpose of this descriptive study was to identify whether a change in curriculum and experience had an effect on nursing student attitudes. Using the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons (ATDP) Scale, a pre-post study of 42 nursing students' attitudes toward individuals with disabilities was conducted. Tests were administered as the students entered their senior year and took the chronic illness course, and again at the completion of the senior year. The students' attitudes were significantly more positive at the completion of their senior year. The findings suggest that education about, and experience with, individuals with disabilities positively affect the attitudes of nursing students toward individuals with disabilities.

The disability paradox: high quality of life against all odds

This paper builds on the work of Sol Levine to examine a disability paradox: Why do many people with serious and persistent disabilities report that they experience a good or excellent quality of life when to most external observers these individuals seem to live an undesirable daily existence? The paper uses a qualitative approach to develop an explanation of this paradox using semi-structured interviews with 153 persons with disabilities. 54.3% of the respondents with moderate to serious disabilities reported having an excellent or good quality of life confirming the existence of the disability paradox. Analysis of the interviews reveals that for both those who report that they have a good and those who say they have a poor quality of life, quality of life is dependent upon finding a balance between body, mind and spirit in the self and on establishing and maintaining an harmonious set of relationships within the person's social context and external environment. A theoretical framework is developed to express these relationships. The findings are discussed for those with and without disabilities and directions are given for future research.