Rehabilitation is a continuous process that requires active, goal directed patient participation and multi-professional team work. Occupational, Speech-Language, and Physical Therapists, are essential to the rehabilitation and recovery of patients who suffer from neurological and physical deficits and they must work collaboratively with other healthcare team members to optimize patient outcomes.
Occupational therapists treat injured, ill, or disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help these patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working. In the rehabilitative setting, Speech-Language Therapists assist patients with cognitive-communicative disorders including social communication skills, reasoning, problem solving and executive functions as well as communication and swallowing disorders related to hearing impairments, traumatic brain injury, dementia, developmental, intellectual or genetic disorders and neurological impairments. Physical Therapists work with the patient to restore function of muscle and motor loss after a traumatic physical or neurological injury.
The role of the nurse in the rehabilitation setting differs from that of the acute care setting in that in the acute care setting the nurses focus is preparation for and recovery from surgery and stabilization of the patient. Pain control and prevention of infection are priorities in the first few days post operatively. In the rehabilitative setting, the focus is reinforcement of ordered precautions specific to the patient’s injury, to encourage recovery and prevent further injury as well as to promote independence through implementation of therapies and assistive devices. Interdisciplinary and collaborative approach is important among interdisciplinary team members in the rehabilitative setting. As part of an interdisciplinary team, physical, occupational and speech-language therapists provide comprehensive care to patients to improve function allowing patients to return to their previous level of independence. These team members collaborate by assessing how challenging the recovery will be for the patient, developing a plan for treatment, and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. The FIM instrument is an important tool implemented by the healthcare team members obtaining these goals. FIM, which stands for Functional Independent Measures, is a grading scale that determines a patient’s level of function before and throughout the stages of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. This scale aids the therapists in measuring the severity of the patient’s disability as it changes throughout rehabilitation and allows for analyzation of outcomes. FIM is comprised of 18 items, grouped into 2 subscales - motor and cognition. The motor subscale includes: Eating, Grooming, Bathing, Dressing, upper body Dressing, lower body Toileting, Bladder management, Bowel management and Transfers. The cognition subscale includes: Comprehension, Expression, Social interaction, Problem solving, and Memory. Each of the items on the FIM instrument …show more content…
The role of the nurse in discharge planning for the patient in rehabilitation includes patient teaching in regards to medication regimen, precautions that may need to be implemented in regards to specific injury, signs and symptoms of reoccurring injury or infection that should be reported, and information on follow up appointments. Additionally, the nurse collaborates with other health care staff to recommend and coordinate home assessment services and selecting and arranging for home care equipment. If the individual will live in an alternative living site the nurse assists in locating and selecting a site and arranges for assessment of the setting, as well as for reasonable adaptation of the site to meet the individual's
Occupational therapists treat injured, ill, or disabled patients through the therapeutic use of everyday activities. They help these patients develop, recover, and improve the skills needed for daily living and working. In the rehabilitative setting, Speech-Language Therapists assist patients with cognitive-communicative disorders including social communication skills, reasoning, problem solving and executive functions as well as communication and swallowing disorders related to hearing impairments, traumatic brain injury, dementia, developmental, intellectual or genetic disorders and neurological impairments. Physical Therapists work with the patient to restore function of muscle and motor loss after a traumatic physical or neurological injury.
The role of the nurse in the rehabilitation setting differs from that of the acute care setting in that in the acute care setting the nurses focus is preparation for and recovery from surgery and stabilization of the patient. Pain control and prevention of infection are priorities in the first few days post operatively. In the rehabilitative setting, the focus is reinforcement of ordered precautions specific to the patient’s injury, to encourage recovery and prevent further injury as well as to promote independence through implementation of therapies and assistive devices. Interdisciplinary and collaborative approach is important among interdisciplinary team members in the rehabilitative setting. As part of an interdisciplinary team, physical, occupational and speech-language therapists provide comprehensive care to patients to improve function allowing patients to return to their previous level of independence. These team members collaborate by assessing how challenging the recovery will be for the patient, developing a plan for treatment, and evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. The FIM instrument is an important tool implemented by the healthcare team members obtaining these goals. FIM, which stands for Functional Independent Measures, is a grading scale that determines a patient’s level of function before and throughout the stages of physical, occupational, and speech therapy. This scale aids the therapists in measuring the severity of the patient’s disability as it changes throughout rehabilitation and allows for analyzation of outcomes. FIM is comprised of 18 items, grouped into 2 subscales - motor and cognition. The motor subscale includes: Eating, Grooming, Bathing, Dressing, upper body Dressing, lower body Toileting, Bladder management, Bowel management and Transfers. The cognition subscale includes: Comprehension, Expression, Social interaction, Problem solving, and Memory. Each of the items on the FIM instrument …show more content…
The role of the nurse in discharge planning for the patient in rehabilitation includes patient teaching in regards to medication regimen, precautions that may need to be implemented in regards to specific injury, signs and symptoms of reoccurring injury or infection that should be reported, and information on follow up appointments. Additionally, the nurse collaborates with other health care staff to recommend and coordinate home assessment services and selecting and arranging for home care equipment. If the individual will live in an alternative living site the nurse assists in locating and selecting a site and arranges for assessment of the setting, as well as for reasonable adaptation of the site to meet the individual's