Staff perspectives on the role of the nurse in rehabilitation wards for elderly people

The increasing demand for cost-effective and efficient health care may create a demand for more demonstrably effective hospital-based rehabilitation services, with the explicit goal of enabling patients to return home after short admissions; thus rehabilitation is centre stage. This paper reports the findings from a study of the rehabilitation of elderly people in hospital; in particular it focuses on an aspect of the process of care: namely staff perceptions of rehabilitation work, with particular emphasis on the role of the nurse. A conversational style of interviewing was used with 56 staff respondents from two rehabilitation wards for elderly people. Findings suggest that therapists are often seen as experts, and nursing is viewed as separate from rehabilitation, and hence nurses are an under-utilized resource in this field. It is suggested that there is a need to examine further the reality of multidisciplinary teamwork in rehabililtation, particularly with respect to maximizing the potential contribution of nurses, with the end goal of improving patient outcomes.