Occupational Therapy Practitioners Use of Surface Functional Electrical Stimulation on Individuals with Tetraplegia

Author

Raquel M. Besey, Grand Valley State University
Elizabeth T. Dawkins, Grand Valley State University
Hannah A. Gove, Grand Valley State University
Madison N. Reid, Grand Valley State University

Date of Award

7-2021

Document Status

Open Access

Degree Type

Project

Degree Name

Occupational Therapy (M.S.)

Department

Occupational Therapy

First Advisor

Ashley McKnight

Abstract

A survey, distributed to occupational therapy (OT) practitioners, was conducted to investigate how functional electrical stimulation (FES) is currently used during OT intervention sessions on clients with tetraplegia. There were a total of 24 survey respondents, the results demonstrated that both occupations and activities were used in combination with FES interventions. OT practitioners most frequently combined FES with the following occupation-based tasks during intervention sessions: feeding, grooming, playing a board/card game, and handwriting. During activity-based tasks, FES was reported to be most frequently combined with upperbody cycling, picking up foam cubes, and cones. Future research should focus on identifying the effectiveness of combining FES with occupations and activities on clients with tetraplegia.

ScholarWorks Citation

Besey, Raquel M.; Dawkins, Elizabeth T.; Gove, Hannah A.; and Reid, Madison N., "Occupational Therapy Practitioners Use of Surface Functional Electrical Stimulation on Individuals with Tetraplegia" (2021). Adult. 4.
https://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/ot_adult/4