September 26, 2016 | Joey Pothe Developing a clinical teaching simulation for healthcare professionals communicating about weight-related topics in spina bifida clinics Amy C McPherson, PhD. Bloorview Research Institute, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario. Results: Obesity is a global health concern. Children and youth with disabilities have high rates of obesity, which can affect both their physical health and quality of life. Children with spina bifida are at higher risk of developing overweight or obesity for a number of reasons, but weight management is not often talked about in spina bifida clinics. Healthcare professionals have told us that they worry about talking about weight-related topics, in case they upset children and families. Parents also said that they were worried that discussing weight will make children feel bad about themselves. Based on what healthcare professionals, parents and children told us previously about their experiences of talking about weight in spina bifida clinics, we wrote four scenarios that described different aspects of communicating about weight in a spina bifida clinic. Using actors, we videotaped these four scenarios, which can now be used to help train healthcare professionals to have more positive conversations about weight-related topics with children with spina bifida and their parents. An application is now being prepared to secure funds to evaluate the videos, to see how effective they are in improving healthcare professionals’ communication skills and their confidence when addressing weight-related topics. Up to now, there have been no resources available to support healthcare professionals in having weight-related discussions with children with spina bifida and their families. The videos developed in this project fill this gap. FacebookTweetPin