Training Advanced Practice Providers to Collect Functional Outcomes After Fragility Fractures.
OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study was to determine whether advanced practice providers could learn to collect objective functional assessment data accurately and efficiently with commercially available devices that measure kinematics and kinetics (Nintendo Wii Balance Board [WBB] and Level Belt [LB]) to aid in the assessment of fall risk and outcomes after fragility fractures.


METHODS
Nine advanced practice providers participated in a 1-hour clinical assessment tools (CATs) training session on equipment use, providing standardized instructions, and practice of the testing procedures. Afterward, they participated in a skills demonstration evaluation and completed a postsession survey.


RESULTS
Participants successfully achieved a mean of 18.22 (standard deviation 1.56) of 20 performance measures. Of the incomplete or omitted tasks, the majority (10 of 16) occurred within the first of 3 CATs activities. Postsession survey results revealed that 9 of 9 participants reported that the 1 hour provided for training on the CATs was sufficient. All participants reported that after the training, they felt confident they could reliably carry out the tasks to test patients on both the WBB and the LB. The majority of participants reported that they believed that the WBB (7 of 9) and LB (8 out of 9) would be good assets to clinics in assessing patient functionality after fragility fractures.


CONCLUSIONS
These results indicate that advanced practice providers can confidently learn and effectively test patients with the WBB and LB within 1 hour of training. In the future, adoption of CATs in the clinical setting may allow for objective, easy-to-use, portable, noninvasive, and relatively inexpensive measures to assess functional outcomes in patients with fragility fracture.
Department of Orthopaedics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Tiffany L
TL
Wang
Department of Orthopaedics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Tyler D
TD
Ames
Department of Orthopaedics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Khoi M
KM
Le
Department of Orthopaedics, The Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH, USA.
Corinne
C
Wee
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA.
Laura S
LS
Phieffer
Department of Orthopaedic Surgery, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, OH, USA.
Carmen E
CE
Quatman
Level Belt; Nintendo Wii Balance Board; advanced practice provider; clinical assessment tool; fragility fracture