Patient empowerment--the way forward

Perceptions of the nursing role in spinal cord injury rehabilitation

In the UK, over the last 50 years there have been many developments in the rehabilitation of spinal cord-injured people leading to improvements in outcomes. In spinal cord injury rehabilitation nurses work as members of a multiprofessional team but their role is not clearly defined and, unlike other professionals, they have a 24-hour relationship with patients. This article presents some findings from a larger ongoing ethnographic research study. The aim of this section of the study was to identify how nurses and patients perceive the nursing role in spinal cord injury rehabilitation. Semistructured interviews were carried out with 14 spinal cord-injured patients and 14 registered nurses. The findings suggest that patients value the nursing contribution as a means of emotional and physical support but that they do not necessarily see nursing input as rehabilitation. Nurses see their role as multifaceted but identify difficulties in crossing over from an acute care philosophy to a rehabilitation philosophy. The 24-hours close relationship with patients may be a source of imbalanced power relationships between nurses and patients and this causes distress to some patients. It is suggested that nurses need to develop their bedrock role in a way that empowers patients in spinal cord rehabilitation.