Evaluation of Rehabilitation Practice (REHB90003)

This wholly online subject introduces students to the rapidly evolving field of evaluation in rehabilitation practice. The subject will provide students with the opportunity to develop skills related to the selection, application and interpretation of different evaluation designs and data collection methods for different types of rehabilitation and other health care services and interventions. The subject is divided into modules to allow flexibility for students to choose types of evaluation of practice that best match their interests or work context. Similarly, students will be given options within assessment tasks so that they can focus on the development of evaluation skills and resources that can be used in their clinical context.

All students will complete four modules within this subject.

A Foundational Module will be completed by all students and introduces the theoretical basis of evaluation in a health care context from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders including the consumer and disease advocacy groups, the clinician, program providers, compensatory bodies and legislators. A theoretical framework, based on the International Classification of Functioning (WHO), will be introduced as an evidenced based methodology for the selection and classification of evaluations used in rehabilitation settings. Students will learn to develop a logic model as a part of the planning of an evaluation project. They will discuss the design and prioritisation of evaluation questions. Students will also develop an understanding of barriers and enablers to evaluation in a general rehabilitation context and their own clinical context. This module also provides students with an opportunity to examine examples of how clinical evaluation has been successfully implemented in different rehabilitation contexts and successfully used for bench-marking and the improvement of the effectiveness or cost-efficiency of a rehabilitation service.

Students will then choose two from four modules that best meets their learning interests and/or practice needs. These modules are:

1. Person Stream. This stream will help extend a student’s understanding of how evaluation could be applied at the level of the person with a focus on outcome evaluation. In this stream, the evaluation designs that will be examined in more detail are quasi-experimental (one group pre- and post- test designs, non-equivalent group pre- and post- test designs and time series designs) and experimental (comparison group designs). Students will practice identifying and evaluating tools that could be used to collect patient reported outcome measures. This module will also introduce students to a methodology to evaluate the psychometric properties of a measurement tool that is of clinical interest or relevance to their work context. Students will learn the skills required to complete an analysis of a tool to identify if it is psychometrically sound. Concepts of validity, reliability, responsiveness, feasibility, clinical utility and interpretability will be examined.

2. Program Stream. This stream will extend a student’s understanding of how evaluation can be applied at the level of the organisation in a rehabilitation context, with a focus on a process evaluation approach. The evaluation design that will be examined in more detail in this stream is mixed-methods design. The methods of interest are focus groups and surveys.

3. Policy Stream. This stream is designed to extend a student’s understanding of how evaluation can be used in setting policy agendas, formulating and implementing policy, and comparing how existing or proposed policy aligns with evidence in the area.

4. Service Stream. This stream focuses on evaluation approaches and methods that could be used to evaluate a rehabilitation service. The lessons will look in detail at a decision and accountability approach to evaluation, when the evaluation purpose is to improve the product, program or service delivered to the consumer. Within this stream, students will explore audit and observation, two methods which could be used in a decision and accountability approach.

The final Integration module will be completed by all students and addresses the integration and application of evaluation back into the individual’s workplace context. The module is capped by an introduction to the legal and ethical considerations of evaluation including informed consent, professional competence, third party observers and ecological validity of the evaluation. Concepts related to culture, diversity and fairness in health care evaluation will also be identified and considered within the students’ own work context.