Citation

Murphy K, Lowe S. Home Healthc. Nurse 2013; 31(7): 389-396.

Affiliation

Kristen Murphy, PT, MS, DPT, is a Physical Therapist at Visiting Nurse & Health Services of CT, and a recent Doctoral Graduate, CPS Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Manchester, Connecticut. Susan Lowe, PT, DPT, MS, GCS, CEEAA, is the Director of the Transitional DPT Program, CPS Bouve College of Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Lippincott Williams and Wilkins)

DOI

10.1097/NHH.0b013e3182977cdc

PMID

23817476

Abstract

The Timed Up and Go (TUG) is a popular, effective, and valid test of functional mobility and fall risk that is often completed by registered nurses (RNs) and physical therapists (PTs) throughout the course of a home care episode. As reimbursement becomes tied to outcomes, it is essential that all disciplines are consistent in their methods when administering the TUG. Results of this study confirm the hypothesis that test-specific training will significantly improve reliability of the TUG when completed by 2 different disciplines. The purpose of this article is to describe an initiative that provided tool-specific training to all clinical staff at our home care agency. The inter-rater reliability between PTs and RNs improved significantly from 0.77 to 0.86 (p = 0.001) after standardized training on administration of the TUG.

Language: en