I can feel the excitement among my colleagues all over the world as everyone prepares for and travels to the upcoming 38th International Seating Symposium (ISS) which will be held in Pittsburgh, PA, US this week. It will be the first time for many to see each other after several years of hiatus when face to face events were not possible. Imagine a big international family reunion, it will be fabulous! 

ESS 2022 was a wonderful experience unlike any of the other numerous conferences I have attended in the past - particularly because it was the first conference I did not attend as a speaker! This blog shares my reflections and takeaways from those few days of learning and sharing.

I had the pleasure of being interviewed a few weeks ago and am so excited to share my experience with you!

A quick post to share how much I am loving these virtual interactions with clinicians around the world!

I have come to the realisation that in clinical practice related to 24 hour postural care we are not asking WHY frequently enough.

In previous blogs, we’ve discussed assessing the life box, the sitting footprint, and the importance of the hands-on supine assessment. Once we have our clinical findings, the next step is to understand how that information will be translated into an optimal sitting position with respect to an individual’s body shape and structure, pressure care, function and participation needs (rather than following a set of arbitrary rules!)

The goal of this step is to identify key features or parameters of the seating system (such as the seat cushion and back support) that are necessary for allowing a person to sit with their body respected - the goal is not to identify specific products at first.

How do we address the growing need for quality education and skills training related to postural care, not only in the context of the current pandemic, but also in light of barriers faced by many clinicians looking to upskill? Hands-on training is an essential component of any clinician’s professional development, and these are the ways we’ve successfully managed to make that virtual over the last year.

This last year has been challenging and it’s easy to deem it a success or a failure based on your accomplishments, both personal and professional - but I don’t think that’s how it has to be. If you’re like me, you may have spent a lot of 2020 thinking about what changes might need to be made, without really taking action.

But this year, with a new post-graduate certificate program starting at the University of Limerick and our second cohort of mentees taking on a new virtual mentorship program in postural care, we are choosing to stop thinking and start doing to redefine progress in terms of what’s meaningful to us.

We can likely all relate to the fact that being an expert in one specialty area does not always equal success if we are unable to work as part of a team. In every aspect of service provision - and business in general - the diverse skills of teams are needed for reaching successful outcomes.

The supine component of the hands-on assessment is critical, yet many clinicians do not perform it due to barriers or lack of understanding.

After over a year of waiting for recognition and registration as a physiotherapist, Jenn’s application has been approved and she can now practice clinically!

2020 has been a challenging year both personally and professionally for most of us. This blog details how I’ve been keeping up with this new work-life balance and managing the transition to web-based work.

Too often, we see clients who are bottoming out of their seat cushion - that is, they are no longer supported by the material of the cushion but by the underlying support surface. This leads to increased peak pressure areas under the bony prominence and, for many, leads to skin breakdown.

This blog takes you through the Hand Check Method to check for bottoming out, which is commonly used by clinicians, caregivers, and wheelchair users to ensure optimal immersion and lower the risk of skin integrity issues.

The Sitting Footprint is a necessary component to the comprehensive hands-on assessment in sitting and supine. This assessment tool helps us identify peak pressure areas as well as any areas that are not being loaded adequately or asymmetrically, which may contribute to postural deviations and increase the work of sitting.

The Life Box is a tool that I use in clinical practice every single day - from screening to assessing to educating, the Life Box provides is with incredibly valuable information and insight!

Most of us who learned about seating and positioning in university were most likely taught rules for guiding appropriate wheelchair prescription – but how many of us have ever really taken a moment to consider why those rules exist, and whether or not they actually make sense or hold any value? We’d like to take this opportunity to deconstruct some common rules that were taught in the 80’s, many of which are still being taught in graduate programs at top universities today.