Therapist competence and clinical outcome in the rehabilitation of memory following traumatic brain injury trial

Abstract

Objectives: Therapist competencies when delivering an intervention can impact clinical outcomes. However, the relationship between competence and outcome in the context of memory rehabilitation has not previously been investigated. We aimed to evaluate whether therapist competencies in delivering a group-based memory rehabilitation intervention, as part of a randomized-controlled trial, was associated with changes in clinical outcome in the participants with traumatic brain injury. Method: Outcome data on the Everyday Memory Questionnaire (EMQ) and Goal Attainment Scaling (GAS) were obtained for 24 participants of the memory rehabilitation trial. Video recordings of intervention sessions delivered by six therapists were coded using a checklist designed to evaluate therapist competence in group facilitation. Results: Therapists demonstrated consistently high levels of competency in facilitating the memory group. Correlational analyses showed that there was a non-significant weak association between EMQ and therapist competence (r = .28, p = .18), and between GAS and therapist competence for short- and long-term goals (r = -.33, p = .12 and r = -.24, p = .25, respectively). Conclusions: We found no significant association between competence and outcome in this memory rehabilitation trial. This may reflect insufficient variability in therapist competence and/or the nature of the clinical outcome measures used. Further research is needed to understand competence-outcome relationships in cognitive rehabilitation.