Stroke Rehab Certification

Join your expert presenter Mike Studer, PT, DPT, MHS, NCS, CEEAA, CWT, CSST, FAPTA, for two days of live presentations! The live webinars are held Monday, November 6 from 8:00 AM–5:45 PM Eastern and Tuesday, November 7 from 8:00 AM–11:45 AM Eastern. Click here for information about Mike Studer.

2-Day: Stroke Rehab Certificate: How to Maximize Functional Recovery

Neurophysiology of Stroke: How the Principles of Neuroplasticity and Motor Learning Work Together

• Mechanisms of neuroplasticity- why and how the brain reorganizes
• Recovery of motor control vs. compensations
• How the brain uses habituation, adaptation, and compensation for functionality
• Therapeutic applications for introducing constraints, incentives, and avoidances in neuroplasticity
• Understand the difference in ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke – and how that impacts rehab.
• When should rehab start? When can intensity start?  When is someone “neurologically ready”?
• How your interventions promote change

• Debunk the myths of stroke: UE vs. LE; timing; and “where gains come from”
• Balance the elements of challenge, gamification, success, and failure to maximize neuroplasticity for each patient
• Apply autonomy as a catalyst for patient engagement
• Prime reward centers for possible success – beliefs are more important than we ever realized
• Shift to external, goal-focused feedback to increase retention of motor skills
• Spasticity vs tone: differences, precursors and the treatments for each
• Goal action coupling – and how this can deepen patient engagement

• Time spent, time expectations and reptations are largely under-dosed for UE
• Why you may want to focus on the hand first instead of the shoulder
• Integrate tasks that force sensory information and motor contribution
• Induce neuroplasticity with graded motor imagery: L/R discrimination and mirror therapy
• Utilize bilateral challenges to increase mirror neuron benefit, intensity, gamification, accountability, and functionality
• Forced use applications for UE
• Applications in overtraining: HIIT, error-enhanced learning, and amplifying error
• Add a dual task to increase intensity and attention

• Forced use applications for LE
• HIIT and high-intensity gait training 
  • What is HIIT, what isn’t, and why we use it...
• Tools for assisted functional recovery: weight bearing tasks in function: transfers, ADL, standing
• Defining improved gait... Independence, efficiency, quality, distance, speed?
• Novel clinical applications: motivational and exercise attributes

• Apply the principles of behavioral economics to movement: confirmation bias, nudge, gamification, familiarity bias, and loss aversion
• Self-efficacy is malleable and may be the most powerful variable across all severities of stroke
• Utilize the physiological tools of behavioral economics to apply nudge, gamification, and choice architecture
• Understand the dynamic balance of autonomy in treatment
• Fear: overcome with habituation, desensitization, reward cycle replacement, self-efficacy, and wins.

• Robotics
• Virtual reality (VR) and Brain-computer interfacing (BCI)
• Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS)
• HIIT, HIGT, task-specific circuit training, and early mobilization (acute care)
• The resurgence of comprehensive outpatient rehabilitation facilities (CORFs)

• Recognize the most common sequelae of cognitive, affective, and attentional impairments sustained in stroke
• How to constrain attentional resources to improve tolerance, function, and awareness
• 4 simple ways to enhance awareness and maximize attention