Abstract
The present study examined the effect of training care workers how to use behavioral methods to assist elderly persons with disabilities in the transfer from their bed to a wheelchair. Participants were 2 care workers, a 20-year-old woman qualified as Associate Nurse, and a 22-year-old woman qualified as Care Worker. The person whom they assisted was a 78-year-old woman who had left hemiplegia and dementia following a cerebrovascular accident. The training had 2 components: (1) didactic instruction in behavioral methods, and (2) modeling and immediate and specific feedback on their performance applying a skill based on the instruction. The experimental design was a multiple baseline across the 2 participants. After both training components had been completed, the rate of appropriate assistance increased greatly, and the rate of manual contact decreased noticeably. These results suggest that consistent and accurate usage of skills by care workers in actual situations is needed when didactic instruction is followed by modeling and feedback.
