Experiences in training for the basic supply of wheelchairs: Universidad del Rosario and Universidad CES

Bearing in mind that 1.5% of people in the world need a wheelchair to fulfill their right to personal mobility and promote other rights such as access to education, work, leisure and recreation. Of these people who require a wheelchair to live independently, only 15% manage to access it due to multiple barriers, one of the most important being the lack of knowledge of professionals regarding assistive products and the evaluation of the wheelchair. user and their environment to prescribe the appropriate products and perform user training. This, added to the economic barriers to accessing these products, means that users potentially benefiting from wheelchairs cannot access what they need to achieve levels of functioning that allow them to live with dignity. The objective of the project is to determine the changes in knowledge about manual wheelchairs generated in students and graduates of physiotherapy from the Universidad del Rosario and the CES University through a study with a quantitative, observational, analytical approach, by the number of measurements to the participants is cross-sectional, due to temporality it is retrospective, with a correlational scope. From a secondary source, through the results of a survey applied in a web environment to students and graduates before and after receiving training in wheelchair provision at the CES University and the Rosario University between 2017 and 2021 (see attached). The results of the application of the questionnaire on basic knowledge in wheelchair supply of the International Society of Wheelchairs Professionals (ISWP), from the same years, will be analyzed; the test is based on the WHO Guidelines for the Provision of Manual Wheelchairs at the basic level. The project aims to generate recommendations on the design of improvement plans that allow adjustments to be made in the curricular mesh of physiotherapy programs in order to guarantee basic skills in new professionals and promote an adequate supply of wheelchairs for those who require them; promote a space for reflection on the importance of the role of physiotherapists in the provision of wheelchairs and their impact to generate transformations promoting inclusive and just societies; identify the knowledge obtained by the participants (students and graduates) in the provision of manual wheelchairs in structured training in the two physiotherapy programs and generate improvement actions in the curricula.

Wheelchair, Functionality, Training, Health Professionals