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Rehabilitation Nursing
The specialty of rehabilitation nursing is dedicated to improving the quality of life for patients with disabilities or chronic illness. The homecare rehabilitation nurse assists patients in transitioning from hospital or rehabilitation center to home.
The rehabilitation nurse will:
- Manage complex medical issues
- Provide a holistic approach to care
- Collaborate with an interdisciplinary team
- Coordinate care and case manage
- Advocate for the patient and caregivers
- Assess and evaluate patient abilities
- Provide patient and caregiver education
- Set goals to achieve the highest level of independence
- Establish a patient-centered plan of care
Patient assessment
The rehabilitation nurse assesses the patient's ability to function and the patient's ability to successfully rehabilitate after an illness or injury. The patient and loved ones will also be assessed to determine the support and education needed to transition back into everyday life at home. Patients are also evaluated for special needs such as bowel and bladder management programs or other individualized specialty programs a patient may need.
The rehabilitation nurse will assess the patient's individual abilities, including:
- Appropriate use adaptive equipment
- Medication compliance
- Pain control
- Mobility
- Safety
- Self-care and health education
- Individual tolerance for exercise and activity
- Nutrition
- Bowel and bladder management
After gaining information from this assessment, the rehabilitation nurse will assist the rehab team to create a care plan that best meets the patient's individual needs. The homecare rehabilitation nurse assesses, analyzes, consults, collaborates, educates, implements, and evaluates the patient's progress and performance around the goals set in the patient's individual care plan.
Rehabilitation nurses serve patients with impaired mobility or self-care deficits that are the result of:
- Stroke
- Brain injury
- Amputations
- Burns
- Deconditioned, acute, or chronic pain
- Cardiac disease
- Respiratory disease
- Bowel or bladder impairment
- Wounds
- Organ transplant
- Cancer
For more information or to refer a patient to MedStar VNA, call 800-862-2166.
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