Educational events aid community, staff training
Facility taps into local resources to do seminars
Rehabilitation and the health care field are changing so rapidly with new technology and research that it’s sometimes difficult to keep staff and the community up to date. Rehab facilities can meet this educational challenge in a variety of ways, including holding community fairs, seminars, and even telephone or Internet conferences.
"I think educational events are absolutely crucial because the field itself is changing so quickly," says Stephanie McAdams, MA, CCC-SLP, education coordinator for the University of North Carolina Health Care Rehabilitation Centers in Chapel Hill. "It’s absolutely important that we stay up to date as rehab professionals," McAdams adds.
Since the hospital-based rehab facility has made educational events a top priority, the number of events geared toward staff have increased from nine to 43 in a three-month period, McAdams says.
"These were attended by the multidisciplinary staff for the most part, although a few were specific to nurses," she adds.
The facility also emphasizes community education and outreach as part of its new focus. Here are some examples of recent educational events sponsored by the rehab center:
• Local conferences: Located in an area known for its medical research and new technology, the rehab center makes good use of local medical professionals, inviting them to conduct on-site seminars.
Conferences can be held via Internet
"We can do Internet conferencing, teleconferences, and video conferences," McAdams says. "We are a university hospital, so we have access to that type of network."
Rehab employees have access to educational information on the hospital’s web site and may use computers located in all therapy and nursing areas.
The rehab center also has plans to hold a neurological nursing conference, open to all nurses in North Carolina. The conference will provide information about an interdisciplinary team approach to rehabilitation of a stroke patient, and it will give nurse attendees the opportunity to earn continuing education units.
• National Rehabilitation Awareness Celebration: Each year the center expands upon its rehab celebration, and in the past two years has included a focus on education. During its rehabilitation reunion for patients, family members, and staff, guest speakers addressed disability issues, McAdams says.
The most recent reunion event, held in September, was attended by several hundred people.
As part of the rehabilitation celebration, the facility also hosted a "grand rounds" speaker at the hospital. The talk was open to the public, although it was mainly attended by students in the allied health profession and hospital staff.
The speaker was David Kiley, who had a spinal cord injury at age 19. Kiley, who spoke on "celebrating the successes of people with disabilities," was a gold medal winner as part of the U.S. paralympic basketball team in 1992 in Barcelona and has competed internationally in skiing and tennis.
Kiley presented an educational forum on general disability and wheelchair sports, including the Adaptive Sports and Adventures Program of Charlotte at the Institute of Rehabilitation in Charlotte, NC, which he directs.
• Rehab vendor fair: The rehab facility hosted a large community educational event at a mall in Chapel Hill. The fair included nearly 50 vendors and more than 90 participants who provided educational materials, including community resources for the disabled, assisted living products, and other services.
Displays and booths included: adaptive travel, diabetes screenings, mobility equipment displays, products that assist with daily life, adaptive gardening, disability advocacy, adaptive feeding equipment, general fitness assessments, referral services, alternative medicine exhibits, on-site rehabilitation specialists, workplace ergonomics displays, and assisted living alternatives.
• Support group: "Another new educational event is that we’ve initiated a support group that meets once a month at a local senior center chapter," McAdams says. "The support group has a strong community education focus because we bring in a speaker on a monthly basis to address a variety of topics, including universal design, modifications, estate planning, current stroke research, and pool therapy."
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