Use of Fitness to Drive Screening Tool

The University of Florida is an AOTA Approved Provider of professional development. Course approval ID# 5208. This distance learning is offered at .1 CEUs, intermediate educational level, category 1 – Domain of OT – Occupations/ IADL, category 2 – Occupational Therapy Process – Occupational performance. The assignment of AOTA CEUs does not imply endorsement of specific course content, products, or clinical procedures by AOTA.

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Instructor

Sherrilene Classen

Sherrilene Classen PhD

Professor And Chair

Sherrilene Classen, PhD, MPH, OTR/L, FAOTA, FGSA is Professor and Chair, Department of Occupational Therapy, University of Florida (UF). Dr. Classen, an academic leader, is an internationally funded prevention-oriented rehabilitation scientist with expertise in fitness-to-drive issues in at-risk drivers through the lifespan with content expertise in clinical assessments, driving simulators, on-road assessments, and autonomous vehicles. She has established SmartDriverTM (2017), a clinical driver rehabilitation program at UF, and developed the 14-credit Post-Professional Certificate in Driver Rehabilitation Therapy—with UF being the sole university in the U.S. teaching this program. Dr. Classen applies a public health, rehabilitation science, and clinical perspective to illuminate the depth and breadth of driver rehabilitation as a specialty area. Since 2002, she has received competitive external funding (totaling >$11 million) from U.S. federal agencies, industry, foundations, state departments, and international agencies. She has (co)authored over 230 peer-reviewed publications, book chapters, and special journal issues; is the editor of a handbook on driving simulation; and has presented over 350 papers at scientific conferences. Dr. Classen is a Fellow of the American Occupational Therapy Association, Gerontological Society of America, an inductee of the American Occupational Therapy Foundation’s Academy of Research, and Chair of the National Association for Driver Rehabilitation Specialists Research Committee (2022-2024).

To enable family members or friends, in the USA and Canada, to detect at-risk older drivers, Dr. Classen and colleagues, developed and tested the Fitness-to-Drive Screening Measure (FTDS), a user friendly on-line tool http://fitnesstodrive.phhp.ufl.edu.  Family members, caregivers, or friends who had driven with the driver in the last three months, may rate the drivers’ difficulties by completing 54 screening questions. After completing the questions a keyform, or rating profile, of each driver is produced which includes a classification of the driver into one of three categories: at-risk driver, routine driver, or accomplished driver.  Based on the specific driver category, recommendations– the logical next steps for family members, friends or clinicians– are suggested for each driver. These recommendations entail guidelines for continued fitness to drive, seeking interventions, or starting conversations about stopping driving. The FTDS has been translated into Japanese and Korean with demonstrated psychometric support for the Korean version. A shorter version has been developed (32 items) with excellent predictive validity of fitness to drive outcomes. This course will discuss each of these core activities and apply content information to an actual case study.

Target Audience

Occupational therapy generalists and specialists, driver rehabilitation specialists, driver educators, specialty practitioners, nurse practitioners, and private practice health care professionals.

Educational Level

Intermediate: Information is geared to practitioners with a general working knowledge of rehabilitation and service delivery. Focus is on a basic understanding and application of the subject matter.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this course, learners will be able to:

  • Conceptualize the rationale for developing the FTDS.
  • Operationalize and use the FTDS as a screening tool for facilitating clinical reasoning skills in fitness to drive decisions.
  • Administer the FTDS, with a proxy rater of an at-risk drivers seen in the clinic, to make informed decisions about fitness to drive.
  • Synthesize the use of the FTDS as a clinical decision-making tool based on the findings from a case-study.
  • Articulate how the FTDS can be used as a supplement to the gold-standard on-road assessment.

AOTA Classification Codes

  • Category 1: Domain of OT – Occupation/ IADLs
  • Category 2: Occupational Therapy Process – Approaches to intervention

Completion Requirements

0.1 AOTA CEUs (1 Contact Hour for State of Florida Occupational Therapy practitioners) will be awarded upon a successful completion of a multiple choice post-test. Participants will be able to print a certificate of completion after completing a short course evaluation in addition to the post-test.

Disclosure Statement

Instructors have stated that they have not received funding to support this training.

Instructional Methods

One (1) hour course during which the learner will view a streaming video presentation, reference PowerPoint® slides. To complete course and earn credits, learner must pass a 10-question multiple choice post-test with a score of 70% or higher.