Occupational Therapy (OT) at The Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne (RCH) provides a specialised state-wide service for Victorian children with hand and upper limb conditions. The Occupational Therapy service provides goal-focused intervention, to enable the child to develop or regain maximum capacity in their upper limb function for participation in daily occupations of play, self care and productivity.

The majority of this rehabilitation and management occurs centrally at RCH in Parkville, regardless of where children live. For those living rurally, the distance and travel time to RCH for appointments has a significant impact on both the patients and their families. Attendance often results in increased school and job absence, increased cost and inconvenience and ultimately decreased satisfaction. It is therefore common to see less frequent/lack of attendance that may risk suboptimal outcomes for patients.

It has been identified that some of the barriers to regional patients receiving locally delivered occupational therapy services include:

• Infrequent clinician exposure to, and experience of, paediatric hand conditions due to centralisation of service
• Clinicians having limited access to continuing education courses, seminars and conferences which are often located near the CBD
• Clinicians having limited time available within their caseload for ongoing professional development
• Low clinician confidence in accepting referrals for paediatric hand conditions, and a lack of specialised knowledge

In 2011 the Paediatric Clinical Network (PCN) provided a grant to the RCH for the production and delivery of four education modules using teleconferencing technology to rural occupational therapists working with children with hand and upper limb conditions. Although the project successfully delivered on goals, some barriers were identified. Barriers primarily concerned difficulties with the teleconferencing technology and conflicting work commitments thereby impeding attendance at the web conferences.

A second grant was provided by the PCN to fund the provision of an educational resource with content of a similar nature to the 2011 project. It is primarily the format and delivery of these educational modules that have been modified and produced in an effort to overcome the barriers mentioned above.

Our aim is to provide a free resource to occupational therapists, that is relevant to their practice, easy to access and use, and that will have a positive impact on their treatment for children with hand and upper limb conditions.