The FCE certified course combines online training with a two day of face to face training session.
Why do the FCE course?Established in 1999, Form Heath is an independent leading edge service provider to the insurance, corporate, occupational health and rehabilitation markets and are leaders in the provision of Functional Capacity Evaluations.
Metriks was founded by Kevin Cairns in 2004. Its purpose is to provide Health Care professionals with Education in the area of assessment and the associated human performance measurement tools. For more information visit www.metriksfce.com
A Functional Capacity Evaluation (FCE) is a systematic method of measuring an individual’s ability to perform meaningful tasks on a safe and dependable basis. Historically, return-to-work decisions were based upon diagnoses and prognoses of clinicians, but did not include objective measurements of an individual’s functional abilities. Most clinicians are not trained to assess the full array of human functional abilities required for comprehensive disability determinations or return to work recommendations. The Physician or treating clinician determines estimates to what an individual can perform. In an evidence-based FCE model, measurements are provided which are preferable to estimates.
The certification course provides you with the proper design, administration, and interpretation of FCEs. It will teach the student how to conduct the major components of an FCE: the intake interview, clinical records review, physical examination, and peer-reviewed and researched functional testing.
Attendees on the course will learn to do the following:
- Perform a comprehensive functional assessment with an individual
- Use information collected to guide the development of a detailed functional assessment report
- Provide instruction of assessment execution, including appropriate verbal and tactile cues
- Conduct a structured interview to gather data about an individual’s past history, perceived level of disability, activities of daily living, and details of their job duties
- Measure joint range of motion for the purpose of rating level of impairment
- Measure and analyse levels of physical effort to determine if the individual’s assessment data is a reasonable representation of their ability, or if they could do more than demonstrated
- Conduct and interpret standardised measures of function and compare the results to required job demands
- Explain the usefulness of an FCE to a stakeholder involved in an individual’s disability management
- Understand a Physical Demands Analysis (PDA) in order to determine the job demands required to conduct a return-to-work FCE
- Perform a complete FCE
- Interpret and rate the results of an FCE
- Write a comprehensive FCE report
- Explain use of coefficients of variation with evaluation strength measurements
- Demonstrate ability to conduct tests for pain of non-organic origin
- Demonstrate ability to design custom protocols to simulate occupational and work tasks for evaluation
- Demonstrate ability to conduct behavioural and validity analysis of FCE data
How is the course delivered?
The course is divided into eight sections, each of which has an online lecture component with a variety of slides, videos and readings. Where applicable, the section includes a workbook and lecture notes. Each section has an emphasis on data interpretation. The eight sections are as follows:
- Introduction to the FCE
- The intake interview
- The intake documents
- Impairment testing
- Effort testing
- Non-Material handling testing
- Material handling
- Heart rate analysis
Who can attend the FCE certified course?The course requires the participant to have knowledge of and training in human function. Therefore, participants are requested to fulfil the following pre-requisites:
- Graduate-level qualifications and training relevant to health sciences e.g. BSc OT/Physio, Dip COT and or postgraduate qualifications in a relevant subject/profession
- Current membership of a relevant professional regulatory body e.g. HPC, NMC, GMC
