What is a rehabilitation nurse?
The rehabilitation nurse is a nurse who specializes in helping people with disabilities and chronic illness attain optimal function, health, and adapt to an altered lifestyle. Rehabilitation nurses assist patients in their move toward independence by setting realistic goals and treatment plans. They work as part of a multidisciplinary team and often coordinate patient care and team activities.
The goal of rehabilitation nursing is to assist individuals with a disability and/or chronic illness to attain and maintain maximum function. The rehabilitation staff nurse assists clients in adapting to an altered lifestyle, while providing a therapeutic environment for client's and their family's development. The rehabilitation staff nurse designs and implements treatment strategies that are based on scientific nursing theory related to self-care and that promote physical, psychosocial, and spiritual health. The rehabilitation staff nurse works in inpatient and outpatient settings that can be found in a range of acute to subacute rehabilitation facilities.
This role description has been developed by staff nurses to clarify and specify the responsibilities of the staff nurse in a rehabilitation setting and to promote professionalism based on the established scope and standards of rehabilitation nursing practice.
