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Research Article: Implementing Lived Experience Workshops in Regional Areas of British Columbia to Enhance Clinicians’ Confidence in Spinal Cord Injury Care: An Evaluation

Date Published: 2024-03-27

Abstract:
In British Columbia (BC), there are challenges accessing specialized spinal cord injury care and resources. This paper evaluated the impact of spinal cord injury health educational workshops delivered in regional communities that were informed by persons with lived experience. A community survey was conducted with 44 persons with lived experience in a BC region to identify priority SCI health-related topics. Twenty-five topics were ranked from 1–14, with bowel and bladder management ranked 1 and 4, sexual health ranked 5, and pressure injuries ranked 7. Clinical perspectives on the priorities were collected from 102 clinicians in the BC region, who independently ranked 14 of these SCI topics and considered the former 4 topics to be lower clinical priority (ranked 11–14). These priorities informed a series of SCI clinical education workshops held at healthcare facilities in three regional cities. The goals were to improve clinicians’ knowledge and confidence levels when managing spinal cord injury health and to facilitate person-centred care. Positive feedback demonstrated that educational workshops supported by lived experience perspectives effectively enhanced the clinicians’ understanding of spinal cord injury and their priorities. Future plans include engaging more administrators as part of this initiative and conducting workshops in other regions of BC.

Introduction:
Spinal cord injury (SCI) is a highly individualized, low-incidence injury that requires specialized knowledge, resources, and easy access to care. Despite being a rare injury, over 86,000 people in Canada are currently living with SCI [1], and persons with SCI are known to use health services more frequently than the general population across all medical care settings [2]. During the past 30 years, the global incidence, prevalence, and years lived with disability of SCI have increased [3], making it essential to…

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