Online Course
Introduction to Spinal Cord Injury
Review the fundamentals of SCI and related physiotherapy

3-4 hours

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Summarising the latest research & evidence
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Introduction

UPDATE: A new Comprehensive Spinal Cord Injury Programme has replaced this old SCI programme. Follow this link to start the courses in the Comprehensive Spinal Cord Injury Programme.

Spinal Cord Injury refers to any damage to the spinal cord resulting from trauma, disease or degeneration with symptoms dependant on both the severity of injury and its location on the spinal cord. According to the World Health Organisation there is no reliable estimate of global prevalence of spinal cord injury, but it is estimated that annual global incidence varies from 40 to 80 cases per million population, which means between 250,000 to 500,000 people acquire a spinal cord injury every year. Approximately 90% of these cases occur as a result of traumatic causes, though the proportion of non-traumatic spinal cord injury appears to be growing. This course will focus on developing an understanding of spinal cord injury; what it is, what causes it, how often it occurs, what you might expect to see, the impacts it has on movement and what other associated conditions may occur. We need to be able to answer these questions in order to understand our role as physiotherapists in the management of spinal cord injury.

Aims

The aim of this course is to provide comprehensive knowledge of spinal cord anatomy, clinical presentations and to examine both local and global prevalence.

Outline

This course is made up of videos, reading, forum posts and a final quiz. The course content is split into the following sections:

  1. Spinal Cord Structure and Function
  2. Epidemiology, Incidence and Global Burden of Spinal Cord Injury
  3. Understanding Spinal Cord Injury
  4. Associated Conditions and Medical Complications

Target audience

This course is aimed at Physiotherapy and Physical Therapy clinicians, students and assistants. Other interested professionals such as athletic trainers, occupational therapists, nurses or medical doctors interested in this subject are also invited to participate.

Practicalities

Availability - this course is online and can be completed on your own schedule.

Hours of Learning - No deadlines are applied to this course and it can be started and completed in your own time according to your personal schedule. We expect the required elements to take around 3-4 hours depending on your schedule and learning style. Additionally there are many optional resources provided and if you choose to review these the course could take longer to complete.

Types of Activities - Watching videos, reading, a final quiz and participating in an international discussion forum.

Certificates - At the end of the course, when you have completed all of the required elements, you will be able to download a certificate of completion and 3 Plus points will be added to your personalised learning dashboard.

Requirements to complete this course

In order to complete this course and receive a course completion certificate plus CEUs/CCUs/CPD points you will need to:

  1. Respect the Plus Community Culture.
  2. Log all the required learning activities as complete (represented by the orange icons!).
  3. Actively and appropriately participate in the course discussions.
  4. Pass a final quiz with a score of 80% or more.
  5. Complete a course evaluation form.

Learning outcomes

At the end of this course you will be able to:

  • list at least 3 risk factors for spinal cord injuries
  • identify the most common mechanism of injury associated with spinal cord injuries
  • discuss at least 1 function of each subdivision of the central and peripheral nervous systems and their connections
  • describe the correct location of the spinal cord
  • identify the common loss of function associated with each of the 6 types of patterns of incomplete spinal cord injury
  • list the correct symptoms of at least 7 complications following a spinal cord injury

Accessibility

For special needs or accommodations please contact us with details of how we can meet your needs.

Featured reviews
Perfect SCI course for the beginning learner! I got complete information on SCI.
Nan May Hnin Su
Physiotherapist
Myanmar
This course is awesome and an eye-opener in the understanding of SCI. It’s a great resource that will definitely change my way of handling these patients. Bravo Physioplus!!
Aaron Chitedze
Physiotherapist
Malawi
This is a great course to introduce you to neuroanatomy and spinal cord injury. I would recommend doing this module before commencing more specific modules around assessment and treatment as you will have a better understanding of why these assessments or interventions are being performed.
Ena Reale
Physiotherapist
New Zealand
All you need to know in a very easy way to understand
João Bernardino
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