Résumé
Wheelchair skills training is associated with positive outcomes related to rehabilitation, confidence, and community participation. Unfortunately, the majority of clinicians in Canada do not report delivering wheelchair skills training to their clients due to a lack of time, knowledge, and resources. One solution is to extend training delivery from healthcare settings into recreational PA settings. This study explored the knowledge and preferred learning of PA professionals towards wheelchair skills training in recreational programming. Ten PA professionals (60% female, ages 19-45) participated in an online, 60-minute interview. The interview guide was semi-structured and informed by Michie et al.’s capability, opportunity, and motivation (COM-B) model and Evan et al.’s quality participation framework. Data were hand-transcribed and analyzed using abductive reflexive thematic analysis. Four themes were identified in total, with two themes and one subtheme speaking directly to the capabilities, opportunities, and motivations of PA professionals: Bring It On discusses the PA professionals’ limited awareness of wheelchair skills training and their motivation to learn more about this resource; The Basics describes existing gaps in the PA professionals’ capabilities (i.e. familiarity with wheelchair skills) and opportunities (i.e. education on wheelchair use) required to teach wheelchair skills training; and Let Me Try outlines the desired learning preferences of the PA professionals towards wheelchair skills training. In summary, PA professionals feel motivated towards learning more about wheelchair skills training; however, they have had limited opportunity to learn about wheelchair use and are not currently capable of teaching wheelchair skills training on their own.
