{"id":325,"date":"2018-01-17T11:16:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-17T16:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/?page_id=325"},"modified":"2018-01-19T14:28:25","modified_gmt":"2018-01-19T19:28:25","slug":"description","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/description\/","title":{"rendered":"Research and Development"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Why is a new best practice standard necessary?<\/h2>\n<p>In 2013, through an arbitration on physical employment testing in the paramedic sector, Union (CUPE local 503)&nbsp; and Management reached a Minutes of Settlement agreement resolving that static strength testing could not be included within paramedic-based physical employment test.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u201cMany of the medics forced to submit to the {previous protocol} found it difficult to complete and highly unrealistic\u2026several veteran paramedics either failed or were injured while completing the test.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><sub>Source: James Watson, Vice President CUPE 503,&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/ottawasun.com\/2013\/07\/28\/union-city-settle-test-fight\/wcm\/9b97dcbf-3e6a-4298-93e4-82252598eb9b\">Ottawa Sun<\/a>, July 28, 2013.<\/sub><\/p>\n<p>A best practice standard should\u2026<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>have a strong evidence-base;<\/li>\n<li>be legally defensible;<\/li>\n<li>be based on the best practice template emerging from the seminal <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/British_Columbia_(Public_Service_Employee_Relations_Commission)_v_British_Columbia_Government_Service_Employees%27_Union\">1999 Meiorin Supreme Court Case<\/a>;<\/li>\n<li>use job-specific simulation; and,<\/li>\n<li>be easily implemented.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Ottawa Paramedic Physical Ability Test (OPPAT<sup>TM<\/sup>) was designed by academic researchers as an evidence-based, job specific simulation to test the physical ability required to meet the demands of paramedic work.<\/p>\n<h2>Research and Development Process<\/h2>\n<p>The test is based on a five step process:<\/p>\n<p><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-423\" src=\"http:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/16\/2018\/01\/oapc-r-and-d-459x500.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"459\" height=\"500\"><\/p>\n<h2><strong>References<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Coffey, B., MacPhee, R.S., Socha, D., &amp; Fischer, S.L. (2016). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0169814116300245\">A physical demands description of paramedic work in Canada<\/a>. International Journal of Industrial Ergonomics, 53, 355-362.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Morales, L., McEachern, B.M., MacPhee, R.S. &amp; Fischer, S.L. (2016). <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/27184327\">Patient acuity as a determinant of paramedics&#8217; frequency of being exposed to physically demanding work activities<\/a>. Applied Ergonomics, 56, 187-193.<\/p>\n<p>Fischer, S.L., Sinden, K.S., MacPhee, R.S.&nbsp;and the Ottawa Paramedic Service Research Team. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pubmed\/28802444\">Identifying the critical physical demanding tasks of<\/a><br \/>\nparamedic work: towards the development of a physical employment standard. Applied Ergonomics, 2017.<\/p>\n<p>To find out more contact the <a href=\"mailto:opat@wlu.ca\">Research Team<\/a>.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Why is a new best practice standard necessary? In 2013, through an arbitration on physical employment testing in the paramedic sector, Union (CUPE local 503)&nbsp; and Management reached a Minutes of Settlement agreement resolving that static strength testing could not be included within paramedic-based physical employment test.&nbsp; \u201cMany of the medics forced to submit to &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/description\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Research and Development&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-325","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=325"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":660,"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/325\/revisions\/660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/specialprojects.wlu.ca\/oppat\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}