Grant: Knowledge Translation Supplement

To make better use of limited resources, major changes have occurred in public healthcare systems in the last few years. Notwithstanding these changes, the emergency department (ED) remains an important means of accessing health services, where the treating team must make the proper decisions within a very short period of time. The ED literature confirms the current practice of referring patients to occupational therapists (OT) to evaluate their functional status in order to facilitate clinical decisions about admission and discharge planning. These assessments have been found in the literature to result in positive outcomes for patients, including reduced physical, functional and cognitive decline and increased satisfaction with health care. A new tool has been developed specifically to address this need: the Functional Status Assessment of Seniors in the Emergency Department (FSAS-ED). In order to implement a systematic functional status assessment process within interprofessional ED teams, knowledge translation (KT) is necessary to disseminate the results of the research related to this topic beyond the traditional scientific community and move them into practice. Using active KT strategies and targeted interventions might fill the gap between researchers who developed knowledge in the assessment of functional status of older adults in the ED and the knowledge-users who would benefit from it to provide more effective health services. The principal objective of this project is to translate research knowledge related to the functional status assessment of older adults into action in EDs. This will be achieved using a variety of evidence-informed knowledge translation strategies (interactive small group discussion, interprofessional collaboration, conferences, and development of educational materials). The proposed KT activities will contribute to raising awareness of the importance of functional status assessment for older adults visiting EDs.