Clinician Training and Confidence Are Associated with Portable Electronic Memory Device Use with Clients

Past Studies

Past Studies have found that the use of portable electronic devices (PEDs) may support or improve the functional abilities of individuals with traumatic brain injuries. Such electronic devices include beepers, voice recorders, and hand-held computers. Past studies have found that PEDs appear most useful for assisting individuals with learning and memory skills, as well as planning, organization, and initiation techniques. For example, PEDs can be helpful for providing reminders, such as using an alarm to remind an individual to take a medication at a certain time. A prior research study showed that clinicians who did not personally use a PED reported lower levels of confidence in their abilities to guide individuals with traumatic brain injuries to use the technology thanclinicians who did. It is suspected that the use of PEDs in rehabilitation may be under-utilized.

This Study

This study surveyed 81 direct service providers with various educational specialties from four TBI Model Systems rehabilitation centers and one national TBI conference. The majority of the clinicians were speech language pathologists, occupational therapists, physical therapists, neuropsychologists, and psychologists. The participants were asked to provide information about themselves, including their use of PEDs for personal use and for their clients with traumatic brain injuries in rehabilitation. Twenty-nine of the 81 (36%) clinicians surveyed reported working with their clients on programming, training, and/or monitoring of PED use for memory function. Eighteen of the 81 clinicians (22%) reported that they used PEDs for their own memory function in personal and/or professional situations. Clinicians’ own use of PEDs for memory was not associated with their use with clients. Thirteen of the 81 clinicians reported receiving training in use of PEDs. The clinicians that had received training with PEDs were at least twice as likely to use them as a rehabilitation tool with clients as the clinicians that had not received training. Respondents who were more confident using PEDs in rehabilitation were approximately three times more likely to use them with clients than respondents who were less confident.

Who May Be Affected By These Findings

Individuals with traumatic brain injury, health care providers, researchers, assistive technology specialists.

Caveats

The results from this study cannot be generalized to all clinicians. The participants in this study were a group of clinicians that may be more experienced with portable electronic devices than the general population of clinicians because of the nature of their work.

Bottom Line

Clinicians in this study who had received training with PEDs and who had confidence teaching clients PED use were most likely to use them with clients. Ongoing PED training and maximizing clinician confidence using PED memory devices are important.

Please take a moment to comment on the value of this abstract:
Click here to take a brief survey