Can a Community of Practice Improve Physical Therapists' Self-Perceived Practice in Developmental Coordination Disorder?

Background: Communities of practice (CoPs) are useful knowledge translation (KT) strategies, but little is known about their impact on physical therapists' self-perceived practice.

Purpose: The impact of a CoP on physical therapists' self-perceived practice was evaluated, and factors influencing changes in self-perceived knowledge, skills, and practice related to developmental coordination disorder (DCD) were explored.

Design: An explanatory sequential mixed-methods design was used, guided by the Theory of Reasoned Action and Theory of Planned Behavior.

Best practice recommendations for the development, implementation, and evaluation of online knowledge translation resources in rehabilitation.

The knowledge-to-practice gap in rehabilitation has spurred knowledge translation (KT) initiatives aimed at promoting clinician behavior change and improving patient care. Online KT resources for physical therapists and other rehabilitation clinicians are appealing because of their potential to reach large numbers of individuals through self-paced, self-directed learning. This article proposes best practice recommendations for developing online KT resources that are designed to translate evidence into practice.

"Support for everyone": Experiences of occupational therapists delivering a new model of school-based service.

Background: Occupational therapists working in school health have recognized the need to move away from a one-to-one direct service delivery model towards a more collaborative, classroom-based approach. Partnering for Change (P4C) is an innovative service delivery model that may enhance school-based collaborative care.

Purpose: To capture the experiences of occupational therapists implementing P4C and to elicit their perspectives about how this model differs from the direct service approach.

Using knowledge brokers to facilitate the uptake of pediatric measurement tools into clinical practice: a before-after intervention study.

Background: The use of measurement tools is an essential part of good evidence-based practice; however, physiotherapists (PTs) are not always confident when selecting, administering, and interpreting these tools. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a multifaceted knowledge translation intervention, using PTs as knowledge brokers (KBs) to facilitate the use in clinical practice of four evidence-based measurement tools designed to evaluate and understand motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). The KB model evaluated in this study was designed to overcome many of the barriers to research transfer identified in the literature.

Promoting the use of measurement tools in practice: a mixed-methods study of the activities and experiences of physical therapist knowledge brokers.

Background: The use of knowledge brokers (KBs) has been recommended as a mechanism to facilitate the use of research evidence in clinical practice. However, little has been written regarding the practical implementation of the KB role.

Objectives: This article (1) describes the brokering activities of 24 pediatric physical therapist KBs (in Ontario, Alberta, and British Columbia, Canada), and (2) reports KBs' perceptions of the utility of their role and their experiences with the brokering process.

Reference curves for the Gross Motor Function Measure: percentiles for clinical description and tracking over time among children with cerebral palsy.

Background And Purpose: Physical therapists frequently use the 66-item Gross Motor Function Measure (GMFM-66) with the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) to examine gross motor function in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Until now, reference percentiles for this measure were not available. The aim of this study was to improve the clinical utility of this gross motor measure by developing cross-sectional reference percentiles for the GMFM-66 within levels of the GMFCS.

Understanding teachers' perceptions of the motor difficulties of children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD).

Background: Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) are often identified by classroom teachers and the identification process relies heavily on teachers' perceptions. The literature would suggest that teachers' perceptions may be influenced by a child's gender, behaviour and the type of motor problem they demonstrate. To date, the influence of these factors on teachers' perceptions of children with DCD has not been empirically tested.