Teaching young dogs new tricks: improving occupational therapists' referral prioritization capacity with a web-based decision-training aid

OBJECTIVE: A web-based clinical decision aid was designed to improve novices' capacity to prioritize occupational therapy referrals in community mental health teams. The aim of this research was to test the effectiveness of the decision aid. DESIGN: A trial was conducted using a consensus expert policy as the educational intervention; a one-group pre-test, post-test design was chosen to measure any effect of training. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 100 pre-registration occupational therapy students accessed the decision aid; they prioritized a set of referrals before and after being trained with graphical and descriptive representations of the expert policy. SETTING: Data were collected online via the World Wide Web from students at 12 UK universities. RESULTS: The effect of training was demonstrated through more accurate prioritization ratings when matched with expert ratings on the same referrals and more accurate judgement policies when matched with the consensus standard judgement policy. CONCLUSION: The tool was found to be effective as it improved referral prioritization capacity.