Tuesday 18th December

Hi Will,

We met today to begin understanding our plan for the second stage of your research: to link each question of each assessment to the ICF.  You explained to me the ICF chapters under the headings of Body Functions, Body Structures, Activities and Participation, and Environmental Factors, then we discussed each of the four levels involved in the linking.  After this we went through the current linkage rules and looked at examples of how each rule would be applied in different situations.  From this, we were able to practice linking statements or questions from assessments to the ICF, and found the we are quite consistent with each other, and whilst we differed from the authors of the linkage rules slightly, we were still reasonably similar in our answers to them.  I found that I understand the concept of linking every statement/question, but that it is much more difficult and complex than I initially believed.  I need to read each statement/question very carefully so that I pick up every meaningful word, as it may be linked to a number of different chapters depending on the words included.  It is also sometimes difficult to identify which code is the most specific, or if it should be the higher code instead.  But the session today was definitely very beneficial in enhancing my understanding of what we will be doing next year.

At the end of today I also went through the LIFE-H statements/questions that we had for the shorter version and made a few changes so that they are exactly the same as the ones from the original assessment.

Our plan for tomorrow is to continue practicing linking statements/questions to the ICF, and to discuss our timetable for next year.  I will be in around 9:30am.

Kelly

Thursday 13th December

Hi Will,

I have just completed my work for today.  We began with adjusting the finalised results for the "undetermined" and "unclear" sections, further refined our definitions for "Yes", "No" and "Ambiguous"(which was originally "Undetermined"), and then revised the data analysis table.  The resuts have significantly improved, with now only 5 measures less than 50% participation.  I then went through the wording for the assessments we looked at on the Exel file, and have adjusted a number of statements so that they are now exactly the same as the assessments.  The only one which is not exact is the LIFE-H section because we only assessed the short version, and the Exel file has the longer version, which has slightly different wording.  Therefore, I had previously added in a number of statements so that they reflected the ones we assessed.

I will be in next Tuesday at around 9:30am, have a great weekend!

Kelly

Wednesday 12th December

Hi Will,

Today was our meeting with Jodie to discuss her research project, and with both Sylvia and Jodie to look at our results from assessing the participation measurements.  With Jodie, we talked about the two papers you and I looked at yesterday as they had conducted studies very similar to that which Jodie was planning on doing.  We discovered that the papers were written in Israel and decided that it would be very beneficial and relevant to conduct a cross-cultural study still using both the PICO-Q and Short Sensory Profile.  There will be a few differences, including our larger age range and that our clients do not necessarily have a diagnosis of Sensory Modulation Disorder.  The plan in going forward involves me going through the 2011 files for further clients who were assessed using both of the above mentioned measures, and to also make notes on the other assessments they may have completed to determine if there are any other common ones that we may be able to include in the study.

In our meeting with Sylvia and Jodie, we discussed the statements we had disagreed on or classed as "Undetermined".  It was very valuable to get their points of view on how they understand participation, particularly relating to children, and by the conclusion of the meeting we all agreed on the final results.  We were also able to refine our definitions of "Yes" and "Undetermined" through Sylvia's and Jodie's input.

Tomorrow we have planned to include these final results in the data we have already generated, and this will adjust the analysis as well.  I will be in at 10:30am, is this suitable for you?

Kelly

Tuesday 11th December

Hi Will,

Our objective today was to prepare for our meeting tomorrow with Sylvia and Jodie.  I began with printing 4 copies of the 65 statements we did not agree on, or wanted to confirm at the meeting, and I added in what each of us decided regarding participation.  As I was doing this, I found two additional statements that we should discuss in the meeting, and included these in the table.

We then began the data analysis and generated a table demonstrating both the number of items classed as "Yes", "No", "Undetermined" and "Undecided", as well as the percentages.  After briefly looking at these results, we determined a the current highest percentages for each classification, and discovered that the majority of assessments we looked at actually had more "No" results than "Yes".

When we finished this data analysis, we looked at two research papers on the PICO-Q and Short Sensory Profile in preparation for our meeting with Jodie, and discussed ideas of what her research could focus on.

Our meeting with Jodie is at 1:30pm tomorrow (Wednesday, 12th), and with both Sylvia and Jodie at 2pm.

Kelly

Monday 10th December

Hi Will,

Today I was doing some more data collection for Jodie, and I have now finished the files from 2010.  As we discussed last week, I included gender; however, in doing this, I discovered that the majority of the files (approximately 76%) were male.  I spoke with you about this, and you mentioned that most of the paediatric clients at the university are male, so this will need to be taken into account.  I will discuss this with Jodie when I meet with her on Wednesday.

I have found 38 files to be included in the data collection from 2010 and will be beginning to look through the 2011 files later in the week.

I will be in tomorrow to work with you at around 9:30am.

Kelly

5th-7th December

Hi Will,

This is what I have completed over the last three days:

WEDNESDAY 5th DECEMBER
Today I met with Jodie at 10:30 to discuss what I would be doing with her regarding collecting and entering data.  For the past three years, it has been part of the UQ paediatric occupational therapy division's process in assessing new clients to have them complete both the PCIO-Q and the Short Sensory Profile.  A student had begun collecting this data earlier in the year; however, it became too difficult for her to complete this along with her other commitments, which is why I am now becoming involved in it.  Unfortunately, not all of the files from 2010 actually contain the results from both of these assessments.  This may be due to the client not completing both assessments, or because they were collected separately, and therefore not filed.  We will begin looking for these papers when I have finished going through all of the files so we can determine if they were completed, and add them to our data.

I found and entered data from 20 files today, and Jodie and I decided that once we had sufficient data (between 10-20 files), we would like to meet with you to determine if there is anything you would suggest regarding efficiency, or the actual research itself.

THURSDAY 6th DECEMBER
We had planned to use today to begin, and hopefully finish, assessing measurements to determine whether or not they were looking at children's participation.  We discussed our definition of participation first, and then completed the practice measure to ensure that we generally agreed on how we were assessing the questions.  From here, we completed the measurements, and found that there were only approximately 67 questions that we disagreed on and would therefore like to check with Sylvia and Jodie to make the final decision. I felt that today was very productive and we are definitely on schedule.

FRIDAY 7th DECEMBER
Today I entered the data we gathered from the measurements into a spreadsheet.  There were a few difficulties when the questions we assessed did not exactly match up with the questions already in the spreadsheet from your previously entered data.  I needed to add in, reword or reorder a number of questions, but I was able to complete the data entry today.  We have also organised to meet with Sylvia and Jodie next week.

I also spoke with Jodie about the data I collected for her, and we have set a time to meet with you next week as well to discuss it.

I will see you on Tuesday around 9:30am, if that suits you, and I will be in tomorrow (Monday) to do further data collection for Jodie.

Kelly

Tuesday 4th December Update

Hi Will,

This is my update for today's work (Tuesday 4th December).  We met at 10am and began with discussing the two papers I read last week regarding the definition of participation which we will be using for the research, and how to determine whether an assessment is actually looking at participation or not.  I feel that from this discussion, I have gained a much better understanding of the difference between participation and performance, particularly relating to children.

I then practiced determining whether a question is asking about a child's participation, or their performance  using the Review of Participation Measures, and when we compared my answers to yours, Jodie's and Sylvia's, I had an 80% agreement.  We discussed any answers which were different, and I now understand not to over-think the question too much and look only at the words used, rather than consider all the options and details which are not included.  For example, in the question which said: "dressing", it is not assessing participation as it is asking only about the activity without any context or purpose.  When I originally answered the question, I said "undetermined" as I was considering all the different reasons someone may be getting dressed.  Since discussing this with you, I realise that we are looking only at the word "dressing" which simply describes an activity.

After I practiced, I then reviewed the Children's Assessment of Participation in Life with Hands (CAP-Hand) and we determined that I felt that only 65.9% of the questions were participation.  However, when we removed the questions relating to self-care, my score increased to 80%.  These results were only from my first impression of the questions, and since discussing these with you, my answers changed slightly as I began to understand what the question was asking.

I found today very beneficial in helping me understand participation and exactly what we will be doing in the following weeks.  I have a meeting with Jodie tomorrow (Wednesday) at 10:30am, then I will see you on Thursday at 10am to begin formally reviewing assessments.  We have also locked in Friday at 9:30am for any other work we would like to finish this week.

Kelly

Hi Kelly,

Many thanks for your update.  Jodie's review study of the assessment reports currently used in our clinics looks interesting. I did not know much about how they usually write up their assessment reports, but it is good to see how the parents (and therapists perhaps) will respond to or perceive the new form of the assessment report.

You also produced a very good and succinct summary of your progress over your first week. What I also found is that your writing skills look quite good as well!!!

Keep your updated progress posted here...

WILL