Pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation of children and young people with acquired brain damage is a small domain in all EU countries, and the field is very specialized and characterized by the medical methodologies. Therefore, there is a huge need to introduce and implement a more inter-disciplinary oriented rehabilitation practice as well as a better inter-connection between the four phases of the rehabilitation process: I - pre-hospital/emergency treatment; II - rehabilitation during hospitalization; III - rehabilitation after discharge; IV - continued development phase. Additionally, the rehabilitations specialists are very often "isolated" and have few opportunities and channels to exchange experiences on new methods and skills which imply a less-optimal rehabilitation process for the child with an acquired brain damage and his/her family. Thus, there is a high demand for specialists in all the countries to have access to and engage transnationally in an interdisciplinary and supportive cooperation opportunities. This project aims to offer an attractive interdisciplinary on-line collaborative platform with specific learning tools and content, supporting participants in acquisition of skills in the field of rehabilitation of children and youth with acquired brain damage. The collaborative platform aims to improve the quality of the inter-disciplinary rehabilitation process – from diagnosis, evaluation and treatment in the field of pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation. It will do this through formal and informal mentoring processes, e-learning content and IT based social networking. The three main project objectives are: 1. Collect and present "best practices" for learning, case studies and other forms of treatment approaches used by rehabilitation centers in the field of pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation for children and youth with acquired brain damage 2. Create curriculum and training modules to train medical and other specialists in pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation (theoretical and practical skills for assessment, diagnosis, treatment) with a specific focus on the transitions between the rehabilitation phases 3. Create a specialist "learner-mentor" network supported by an IT platform to enhance the exchange of experiences and transnational supervision. The project has four intellectual outputs. (1) a survey and mapping of the rehabilitation for children and youth with acquired brain damage in the three partner countries and in Europe; (2) guidelines based on best practices in rehabilitation of children and young people with acquired brain damage; (3) an eLearning platform to give rehabilitation professionals and students the possibility to follow training materials, evaluate knowledge and communicate with all involved parties; and (4) trainer s transversal kit on rehabilitation. The target group of the project is personnel working with rehabilitation of the child with neurologic and neurophysiologic disabilities, with a special emphasis on young medical staff and other types of specialists, and with an importance on medical doctors and specialists in transferring their experiences. The project intends to use innovative and learner-centered pedagogical approaches in the eLearning which will be a key feature of the IT platform which the project shall develop. The training materials will be accessed via a standard web browser, which provides an integrated multilingual on-line learning environment. Our Strategic Partnership involves a diverse range of partners to benefit from their different experiences, profiles and specific expertise to produce relevant and high quality project results. The partners have been selected to ensure the coverage of all the phases of the complete rehabilitation process for children and youth with acquired brain damage. We have decided to limit the core project consortium to small team to ensure the effectiveness of the work as much as possible and put more efforts on an inter-cooperative dissemination process which can take in additional actors in the inclusion of rehabilitation cases and materials in the final stages of the project and beyond.
Context/background of the project: Pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation of children and young people with acquired brain damage is a small domain in all EU countries, and the field is very specialized and characterized by the medical methodologies. Therefore, there is a huge need to introduce and implement a more inter-disciplinary oriented rehabilitation practice as well as a better inter-connection between the four phases of the rehabilitation process: I - pre-hospital/emergency treatment; II - rehabilitation during hospitalization; III - rehabilitation after discharge; IV - continued development phase. Aim and Objectives: This project aimed to offer an attractive interdisciplinary on-line collaborative platform with specific learning tools and content, supporting participants in acquisition of skills in the field of rehabilitation of children and youth with acquired brain damage. The collaborative platform aimed to improve the quality of the inter-disciplinary rehabilitation process – from diagnosis, evaluation and treatment in the field of pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation. The main project objectives were: a. To collect and present "best practices" for learning, case studies and other forms of treatment approaches used by rehabilitation centers in the field of pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation for children and youth with acquired brain damage b. To create curriculum and training modules to train medical and other specialists in pediatric neurology, neuro-physiology and neuro-pedagogical rehabilitation (theoretical and practical skills for assessment, diagnosis, treatment) with a specific focus on the transitions between the rehabilitation phases c. To create a specialist "learner-mentor" network supported by an IT platform to enhance the exchange of experiences and transnational supervision. According to its objectives, the project had four intellectual outputs: a. a survey and mapping of the rehabilitation for children and youth with acquired brain damage in the three partner countries and in Europe in the form of national reports in participant countries and a summative report b. guidelines based on best practices in rehabilitation of children and young people with acquired brain damage; c. an e-Learning platform including a repository of training material with real clinical case studies with a multi- language user interface. d. the trainer 's transversal kit on rehabilitation. Number and type/profile of participants: The target group of the project was made up of personnel working with rehabilitation of the child with neurological and neuro-physiological disabilities, with a special emphasis on young medical staff and other types of specialists, and with an importance on medical doctors and specialists in transferring their experiences. There were 380 participants at the project multiplier events (6% foreigners): 61% medical doctors, 17% physical therapists, 11% nurses, 4% occupational therapists, 3% psychologists and 8% other categories. Description of undertaken activities: O1-A1 – Elaboration of research framework and tools for reports and research studies. O1-A2 – Specialized research of the rehabilitation literature and practice. O1-A3 - Elaboration of report for the current state of the art in the field of rehabilitation. O1-A4 –National research, Study and Analyses on labour market demands. O1-A5 – Elaboration of national reports in participant countries. O1-A6 – Elaboration of summative report. O2-A1– Development of general framework of the guides. O2-A2- Development of an interactive video support for standards in rehabilitation of children and youth with ABI. O2-A3– Development of a kit on how to be created a video. O2-A4 -Development of 12 standard procedures for rehabilitation cases. O2-A5– Development of 24 videos. O2-A6– Elaboration of the guideline. O3-A1 – Elaboration of the technical architecture of the e-platform. O3-A2– Production of work-based training contents - elaboration of case studies for rehabilitation training. O3-A3 - Integration of the specific cases in the e-learning platform and deployment of the platform on an online server as prototype O3- A4 – Pilot testing by the users and adoption of final version was conducted for a functional prototype by the users, which checked if the prototype is fit for the purpose, and that the level of knowledge, user interface, language level, graphical approach and level of interaction are suitable. O4-A1 Dissemination process launched which also initiates the sustainability of the e-Learning Platform and website. Results and impact: Our shared information regarding national and transnational reports, best practice guideline and e-Learning platform had a high impact on all specialists' categories, reflected in increasing flexibility, higher degree of efficiency and increased level of knowledge.