Occupational and Physical Therapists’ Knowledge and Perceived Confidence Working the Intensive Care Unit

The benefits of early mobility in the intensive care unit (ICU) are well documented and supports early mobilization of patients in a critical care setting. Unfortunately, only 45% of United States hospitals implement interdisciplinary early mobility teams as a standard practice of care (Bakhru, McWilliams, Wiebe, Spuhler, & Schweickert, 2016). Reasons for not maintaining full time, early occupational and physical therapy intervention teams can be related to perceptions from therapists, physicians, and other healthcare providers’ limited knowledge and confidence in how and when to implement therapy intervention in the ICU environment. For this evidence-based study, a self paced online training course was developed to educate occupational and physical therapy practitioners in the acute care setting on early therapeutic intervention in the ICU. Participants completed both a pretest and posttest knowledge assessment and confidence survey asking questions related to their knowledge and perceived confidence when implementing therapy interventions in the ICU. Results show that participants had an increase in their knowledge and perceived to be more confident after the online learning intervention. Therefore, the use of online learning for healthcare providers may prove to be a valued method for increasing and maintaining practitioners’ competency and confidence in their clinical skills while in the ICU.