Bridgepoint’s auditorium became a learning lab for students from the University of Toronto earlier this month, as Bridgepoint’s Occupational Therapy team and Seating Clinic hosted a hands-on learning session about mobility devices for older adults.
“It’s helpful to be able to get out of the classroom and have this learning experience in a hospital setting,” said Laura, one of 40 second-year Occupational Therapy Master’s students who attended the session.
The students used walkers, manual wheelchairs and power wheelchairs, learning about the many factors to consider when selecting or prescribing a mobility device to support older adults.
“In their future Occupational Therapy practices, these students will assess their patients’ mobility and determine what type of devices will best support them to be independent in their day-to-day lives,” says Meridith, McClenaghan, an Occupational Therapist at Bridgepoint. “In this lab, the students had the opportunity to become familiar with the types of devices that they will someday help their patients learn to use.”
The learning session was organized in collaboration with Bridgepoint’s Academic Office. In addition to hosting the session, the Occupational Therapy team developed educational videos for the students to watch ahead of the session so that they could make the most of their experience.This was the first time Bridgepoint’s Occupational Therapy team had hosted this type of education session. But they hope to be able to do more of these events in the future.