In this episode of Arthritis At Home, we are sharing the #CRArthritis interview with Ms. Julie Herrington, an Advanced Physiotherapist Practitioner with ACPAC (Advanced Clinical Practitioner in Arthritis Care) training working with the pediatric and young adult rheumatology teams at McMaster Children’s Hospital in Hamilton, Ontario. 

In her discussion with Cheryl, she shares highlights from her two posters. The first poster looked at an advanced physiotherapist practitioner’s level of safety performing juvenile idiopathic arthritis care. They compared quality and standards of care, safety, and performance indicators between patients receiving advanced physiotherapist practitioner care with those in the PR-COIN Registry. PR-COIN is a collaborative community where patients, parents, clinicians, and researchers work together to improve the health and care of children and youth with rheumatic conditions. 

The second poster highlights parents and teens’ feedback about their satisfaction with the advanced physiotherapist practitioner model of care in pediatric rheumatology. The study found that satisfaction level is high. The parents and teens felt that appointments were thorough and valuable.

Additional learning resources

• Pediatric Rheumatology (PR-COIN) Care & Outcomes Improvement Network
• Advanced Training in Extended Practice Roles in Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Disease
• McMaster Children’s Hospital
• Arthritis Consumer Experts’ About Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis page
• Canadian Alliance of Pediatric Rheumatology Investigators