Rehabilitation nursing: invisible and underappreciated therapy

Abstract

A nursing colleague recently spoke of the dismay she felt at a multi-disciplinary meeting where preliminary findings of a study related to time use in neurological rehabilitation were discussed. One researcher reported that ‘too much time was spent in the bathroom’. This time was perceived as inactive, and encroaching on patients' therapy time. The nurse challenged the classification and interpretation as ‘time wasted’, pointing to the likely therapeutic nature of time spent in the bathroom – time spent coaching patients in specific tasks to develop self-care and independence. This is what rehabilitation nurses do; where possible, we don't ‘do for’ (which does speed up bathroom time), but use all opportunities to ‘do with’ or to explain, demonstrate and stand by while our patients slowly ‘do’. Rehabilitation nurses do not see bathroom time as getting patients ready for their group therapy sessions, but rather as one-to-one sessions of therapy in vivo, therapy that is focused and tailored to the achievement of meaningful tasks for individuals.