IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSES IN APPROACHES TO THE MANAGEMENT OF STROKE REHABILITATION - A REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

There is as yet no general agreement on how best to manage stroke rehabilitation in terms of the approaches to the management of this client group. Approaches include the Stroke Rehabilitation Unit (SRU), applying the principles of SRU management to general medical wards and the use of peripatetic stroke therapy teams. Each of these approaches has implications for nurses yet the contribution of nurses to the rehabilitation of stroke patients receives only scant attention in the literature. It is suggested that understating and undervaluing nursing leads to under use of this essential resource.