STEPHANIE JUDYCKI, OTD, OTR/L
doing, being, becoming, belonging
Capstone Description
This capstone project will seek to answer questions pertaining to self-management for persons with spinal cord injury while also providing me with the unique opportunity to understand the needs of patients and families first-hand.
Project Need
There is a need for increased spinal cord injury self-management support efforts to reduce secondary complications, provide knowledge of risks and protective factors, and enhance skills to minimize risks through self-monitoring and social support. There is also a need to improve existing methods of patient and patient caregiver education to ensure that 1) patients understand the ways in which they can manage their condition and 2) care partners understand the skills and strategies needed to undertake caregiving responsibilities. Enhancing patient and patient caregiver self-efficacy through the development of a patient care resource has the potential to maximize functional gains, improve skill carryover, and promote a successful transition to outpatient or community services.
Purpose Statement
Due to the pervasive impact of spinal cord injury on functional participation across multiple life contexts, self-management initiatives are essential within inpatient rehabilitation settings to further enhance functional gains and promote a successful transition to outpatient or community services. Therefore, the purpose of this proposed Capstone is to enhance patients’ skills for self-management as well as improve patient caregiver competency and self-efficacy with caregiving responsibilities through use of a tailored patient care resource.
Project Description
The aim of this capstone project was to develop and implement an individualized handout-based patient and caregiver education resource for people with spinal cord injury at Shirley Ryan AbilityLab. The resource was designed to enhance patients’ skills, strategies, and self-efficacy to play an active role in managing their care. The initiative was also developed to improve caregiver competency and self-efficacy with providing care for their loved one with a spinal cord injury.
Overarching Goal
The ‘My Care Binder’ initiative seeks to provide a resource for patients to identify areas for growth, document the skills and strategies learned during clinical intervention, track their progress throughout their inpatient rehabilitation stay, and identify goals during the acute phase of their recovery and beyond. The resource also serves to provide family members and caregivers with information to continue care post discharge while also relieving caregiver burden by enhancing caregiver competence and confidence with providing care for their loved one. The pilot testing of this resource will help me identify the ways in which the product can be modified to improve usability and maximize integration of the resource into existing models of care.