ARTIFACT 1: INTERDISCIPLINARY INSERVICE

Cortical Visual Impairment or CVI, is a commonly co-occurring diagnosis amongst children with brain injury and neurological impairment. Being a practice specializing in pediatric neurorehabilitation, CVI impacted a significant number of the patients we worked with. As an interdisciplinary team, collectively our knowledge in this area varied depending on prior experience and education. Personally, I recall not having been exposed to CVI until beginning at my current position, but quickly recognized the vital need to learn further about it. While there were multiple areas of practice I sought to grow in, CVI particularly intrigued me.

CVI, unlike other forms of low vision and blindness, is a result of the brain's inability to correctly process visual information (Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment Society, 2019). Perhaps what fascinated me most and drew me to CVI was the potential for continued recovery. Once better understood, strategies specific to each phase can be implemented to best support how children with CVI learn. Vision permeates all we do - the way we move, communicate and engage in our everyday occupations. As such, it seemed all the more worthwhile to invest in a collaborative interdisciplinary approach.

Developing and presenting this inservice challenged me beyond my comfort zone. Not only was the CVI literature new to me, but the ability to integrate and relay it in a meaningful way that captured each discipline was something I had not done before. I began to appreciate how a shared common impairment functionally impacts the child in different ways, while also contributing to the aggregated whole. I contemplated the unique challenges and shared commonalities that manifest through the lens of each discipline. Throughout the inservice, I engaged my colleagues in rich dialogue which surfaced discussions of varying perspectives and prioritization in care. I then began to reflect how to best implement streamlined supports to optimize consistency and efficiency across our care. From there the concept of creating a more formalized CVI program development was born.

Reference: Pediatric Cortical Visual Impairment Society. (2019). What is CVI? Retrieved from: https://pcvis.vision/what-is-cvi/