A study of effectiveness of wheelchair skill training program (WSTP) in teaching wheelie to occupational therapy students

The “wheelie” is a useful skill that enables the wheelchair user to overcome a number of environmental obstacles. The inability of most wheelchair users to perform wheelies is due to lack of formalized training. The Wheelchair Skills Training Program (WSTP) is a structured protocol which is used to test and train wheelchair users and/or their caregivers and clinicians.

To test the hypothesis that formalized training based on WSTP guidelines given to Occupational therapy students would improve their skills of doing Wheelie.

Research Design – Pretest Post-test single group design

15 Students of Occupational therapy(BOT III/BOT IV) were taken.

Setting – College/Lab setting

Materials/equipment – Wheelchair, wooden blocks/bricks, Spotters strap, stop watch, measuring tape, WSTP

Outcome Measures – Height of Castors rise, Time in seconds for maintaining wheelie position, Safety perception on Visual Analog Scale

Procedure -Subjects were trained for wheelie by using WSTP guidelines. They were assessed by using the outcome measures

There was significant difference (p<0.05) between pre and post training measure

Formalized training based on WSTP guidelines given to Occupational given to Occupational Therapy students improved their skills of doing wheelie.