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 rehabi litation services, with the explicit goal of enabling patients to retu rn home after short admissions; thus rehabilitation is centre stage. T his paper reports the findings from a study of the rehabilitation of e lderly people in hospital; in particular it focuses on an aspect of th e process of care: namely staff perceptions of rehabilitation work, wi th particular emphasis on the role of the nurse. A conversational styl e of interviewing was used with 56 staff respondents from two rehabili tation wards for elderly people. Findings suggest that therapists are often seen as experts, and nursing is viewed as separate from rehabili tation, and hence nurses are an under-utilized resource in this field. It is suggested that there is a need to examine further the reality o f multidisciplinary teamwork in rehabililtation, particularly with res pect to maximizing the potential contribution of nurses, with the end goal of improving patient outcomes.