3-Day Lower Limb Workshop

Evidence-Based Retraining of Lower Limb skills after Stroke

This course has been developed over the last 20 years and continues to evolve as new evidence is published. The background to the development of this workshop was the clear need for an evidence informed workshop for therapists which included the following features: – Biomechanics of movement: Inclusion of published scientific observations of skills such as sitting balance, standing up, walking, ascent and decent of stairs and There is now sufficient scientific knowledge of the kinematics (“what we see”) and kinetics (the forces that cause what we see”) to clearly outline the essential features of these skills. – Essential components of skills: Lists are provided of the common features (essential components) of how people move. These lists of essential components are used for comparison with people who have movement difficulties – Analysis of abnormal movement: The essential components of these skills are used to analyze people with movement problems. Video tapes of stroke survivors are used initially to practice analysis These analysis skills are then used to analyze stroke survivors in clinical sessions on each of the 3 days. – Knowledge of current evidence of effective interventions: Review of current stroke guidelines and high-quality published evidence of effective interventions are presented and discussed to help clinicians provide the best current interventions for people they are The workshop aims to assist therapists to understand and distinguish the differences between evidence and opinion. – Knowledge of effective coaching skills: Current evidence of effective teaching strategies which optimize the learning environment for people after brain injury is presented. Clinicians then practice and evaluate their own coaching skills in clinical sessions with stroke survivors. The course manual provides all the PowerPoint slides, an extensive reference list for clinicians to use, as well as worksheets which are used in the clinical sessions. These worksheets can be used to practice clinical skills after the course. Therapists are encouraged to use the manual for their own clinical continuing education with work colleagues. Target audience: The course will be of interest to physiotherapists, who teach and train adults following stroke and acquired brain impairment. The focus is on lower limb retraining and involves practical sessions with stroke participants. Course participants: The small cohort of therapists participating the course enables groups of 3 to work with stroke participants and receive feedback about analysis, training strategies and coaching skills from presenters during clinical sessions.

Learning objectives – This workshop aims to increase participants’:

1. Awareness of the key aspects of a being an evidence based clinician
2. Ability to apply that knowledge to the rehabilitation of people following stroke or traumatic brain injury
3. Knowledge of the biomechanics of sitting and standing, standing-up and sitting-down and walking
4. Ability to analyze movement problems in these skills, considering neural, biomechanical, musculoskeletal and environmental
5. Ability to distinguish between compensations and missing essential components
6. Ability to plan and implement appropriate training strategies for the analyzedmovement
7. Ability to objectively evaluate the effectiveness of the chosen training strategy
8. Ability appropriately modify these training strategies in response to changes in the patient’s performance
9. Ability to critically evaluate and modify teaching skills to optimize practice, training, and motivation

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