24-Hour Postural Care – Successful Night-Time Positioning – Using a Person-Centered Approach to Optimize Sleep Patterns, Pressure, Thermal Comfort, Safety, Behavior, Sleep Apnea, Seizures and Reflux

Course Description

This course seeks to help PTs, PTAs, OTs, OTAs, other healthcare providers, and caregivers learn how to successfully implement respectful, safe, and user-friendly night-time postural care as an essential part of healthcare provision for individuals with movement difficulties.   Attendees will examine the impact of interventions to improve sleep quality on overall well-being and quality of life for people with movement challenges and their caregivers.  A thorough review of possible barriers to improving sleep quality and nighttime positioning will be discussed, with suggestions and alternative options provided.  Attendees will recognize that the overall principle of 24-hour postural care must be customized to each individual and their caregivers’ circumstances and is reliant on the caregivers being trained and empowered, in order to successfully understand and carryout routine postural care for those in their care.

Course Objectives

At the end of this course, the participant will be able to:

• Identify the need for 24-hour postural care, for persons with movement limitations, including risk factors of habitual lying positions, consequences of changes in body shape on internal organs, health, well-being and quality of life.
• Distinguish between habitual, obligatory and supported postures.
• Assess pain and non-pain related behaviors and identify/respect consent in relation to positioning strategies.
• Describe the significance of patterns and quality of sleep on the individual and caregivers
• Complete a safety checklist and plan for risks identified within the safety planning process
• Recognize the impact of temperature on nighttime positioning, and recognize the implications of having disturbed heat gain/heat loss reflexes in persons with movement challenges
• Describe the impact of pressure and pain on nighttime positioning, and the impact on quality of sleep and safety.
• Summarize other physiological factors including seizures, reflux, tube feedings, and sleep apnea that may impact nighttime positioning.
• Discuss external factors such as family dynamics, behavior, availability of equipment, and training/follow-up that impact successful provision of 24-hour postural care.

• Prerequisites

  None

• Educational Level

  Basic

• Other

  Satisfactory completion of this course will require the participant to respond to various polling questions asked throughout the webinar.