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APHA Scientific Session and Event Listing

Recorded presentation

Suzanne Groah, MD, MSPH, Brenda J. Gilmore, BA, and Melinda Neri, BA. National Rehabilitation Hospital, 102 Irving Street, NW, Washington, DC 20010, 202-877-1038, melinda.t.neri@medstar.net

Objective: To educate 1000 healthcare professionals and providers about caring for patients with physical disabilities such as spinal cord injury (SCI), from a consumer-based perspective. Methods: A consumer-driven, interactive lecture series on how to provide care for individuals with SCI and other physical disabilities co-taught by a consumer with a SCI and a healthcare professional specializing in SCI medicine. Feedback on format, content, and organization of the lectures is collected from participants after each session, and assist in the refinement of the lectures. Results: Lectures have been presented to more than 200 attendees, including physical therapists, physical therapy and medical school students, neurologists, trauma nurses, case managers, social workers, and other healthcare professionals. Feedback has shown the lectures to be informative and useful, especially in regards to learning the ‘consumer perspective' from an individual with a SCI. Attendees identified the strongest features of the lectures as the real life examples of living with SCI combined with the clinical information from the healthcare professional. Compared to other teaching lectures, the majority of attendees stated they learned “Much” or “A Great Deal.” Conclusion: Disability-based educational lectures taught by both consumers and healthcare professionals has been well-received by a variety of audiences in the healthcare field. The SCI consumer's perspective and experience is a unique patient care teaching aspect that is rarely seen in teachings, lectures, and medical schools. This combination of consumer-health professional teaching should be pursued as an alternative and effective lecturing style in the medical and healthcare professions.

Learning Objectives:

• To describe the Consumer Professional Partnership Program lecture series as a method of educating healthcare professionals.
• To discuss the benefits of a consumer-health professional lecture series for teaching healthcare professionals about individuals with spinal cord injuries.

Keywords: Health Education, Disability

Related Web page: www.sci-health.org

Presenting author's disclosure statement:

Any relevant financial relationships? No

Recorded presentation