Persons with lived experience of SCI (PLEX) living in rural areas have difficulty accessing optimal care and are required to travel long distances to access specialized services. Clinicians not affiliated with specialized urban centres recognize that developing knowledge and skills specific to SCI will improve care outcomes. Praxis has conducted multiple workshops on SCI topics throughout the BC Interior Health Region to improve clinician knowledge about SCI. Topics include pressure injuries, autonomic dysreflexia, specialized equipment, bowel and bladder, etc. Utilizing evidence-based information and PLEX experiences, these workshops have increased clinician confidence when working with clients with SCI.
This interactive workshop explores the development and implementation of the sessions, from the perspectives of a clinician, a PLEX, and a knowledge exchange expert.
The goals of this workshop are to:
Describe the creation of rural workshops including the stakeholder engagement process of both clinicians and PLEX.
Demonstrate how SCI Workshops delivered by PLEX and clinical experts result in increased awareness, knowledge, and confidence in working with PLEX for clinicians in rural areas.
Engage workshop participants to share learnings from other initiatives aimed at improving knowledge and confidence of clinicians working with PLEX in rural areas.
This workshop demonstrates the benefit of SCI knowledge exchange for clinicians working in rural areas. Furthermore, it highlights key factors in developing these workshops, and provides an opportunity to connect with other rural SCI initiatives and networks aimed at enhancing the care and well-being of PLEX.
