EFFECTIVENESS OF TRAINING OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY AND

PHYSIOTHERAPY INTERNS IN LEPROSY

Mrinmoy Karmakar

The Leprosy Mission Trust, India

Need for training –High leprosy endemic area

–Lack of specialized leprosy training in Kolkata/State

–Lack of adequate knowledge about leprosy among the physiotherapy

and occupational therapy students.

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Objective • To assess the knowledge about leprosy before and after training in “Clinical and

Surgical Leprosy” of interns in Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy at The

Leprosy Mission Kolkata, India during the period June 2012 to February 2013

• The study was carried out at The Leprosy Mission referral hospital, Kolkata which

has been involved in training more than 650 participants from various medical

professionals in 2012 (e.g. doctors, therapist, and nurses, etc.).

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Materials and Methods

42 intern in

OT & PT

• Pre-test • Training on “Clinical and surgical leprosy” for 15 days.

• Didactic • Practical

demonstration and

• Hands on training

• Post Test • Feedback

regarding training.

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• ANATOMY • INVOLVEMENT IN

LEPROSY • MANAGEMENT OF

COMPLICATIONS

CLINICAL FEATURES

MEDICAL TREATMENT

REACTIONS & NEURITIS

• ANATOMY OF HAND AND FOOT

• IMPAIRMENT • ULCERS • POP SPLINTS

TOPICS COVERED (1/2)

Clinical

Leprosy

Eye in

Leprosy POID

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• SPLINTS • PRE AND POST

OPERATIVE ASSESSMENT AND MANAGEMENT

• PRACTICALS

• TENDON TRANSFERS

• FLAPS

• PODIATRY • FOOTWEAR • PRACTICALS

TOPICS COVERED (2/2)

RCS Hand

Therapy Podiatry

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PRE TEST SECTIONS POST TEST

MAX MIN MIN MAX

10.50 1.00 CLINICAL LEPROSY 8.50 19.50

6.00 0.00 EYE IN LEPROSY 0.00 8.50

18.00 4.00 POID 8.00 23.00

7.00 .50 RCS 3.00 19.00

12.50 2.00 HAND THERAPY 6.00 18.00

6.00 0.00 PODIATRY 0.00 11.00

48.00 15.00 TOTAL 29.00 95.50

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RESULTS

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

CLINICAL (19.5) EYE (8.5) POID (23) RCS(20) OT & HANDTHERAPY(18)

PODIATRY(11) TOTAL

Pretest and Post test scores

Pre test score

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CHANGE IN SCORES AFTER TRAINING

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POST TRAINING – PRE TRAINING Mean

Sig. (2-tailed)

CLINICAL LEPROSY 10.1 .000

EYE IN LEPROSY 4.8 .000

POID 7.7 .000

RECONSTRUCTIVE SURGERY 9.4 .000

HAND THERAPY 6.8 .000

PODIATRY 5.2 .000

TOTAL 44.0 .000

Paired t-test was used to analyze the results of the pre-test and post-test

scores of each section. There is a significant difference between the pre-

test and post-test scores in all the sections (p-value=.000).

FEEDBACK ANALYSIS

QUESTIONS Strongly Agree Agree Disagree

Strongly

Disagree

New Knowledge and ideas communicated 64% 36%

Felt that my personal learning objectives were met 64% 36%

The training has equipped me with enhanced

knowledge, understanding and/or skills 36% 64%

The training covered everything I had expected it to 50% 43% 7%

I will use the new learning, skills, ideas and knowledge.

36% 64%

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Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

I believe that the new learning and knowledge I have will improve my performance at work

43% 57%

I feel that the course was conducted well (e.g. engaging form of training delivery, length of course, professionalism of trainers, good venue)?

57% 43%

Knowledge about leprosy 86% 14%

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Feedback from the trainee showed that most of them agreed that they had

developed new skills and gained new knowledge and will be using the

newly learnt skills in their practice.

The trainees also underwent a change of attitude towards leprosy affected

people and were able to shred their fear and treat leprosy patients like any

other disease.

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CONCLUSIONS

There was statistically significant improvement in all aspects of the leprosy

training among the interns.

The knowledge of the professional can be improved and the attitude

towards leprosy can be changed.

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Conclusions

Though training has improved the knowledge regarding leprosy among

interns of OT and PT but questions arise about how much the interns will

be able to retain in their clinical practice in view of the decreasing

numbers of leprosy patients they will be seeing .

A long term follow may be done to find out how much the trainees have

retained and how useful the training is.

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