Rehabilitation and health care are for patients who can need around the clock or periodical care and check up especially after they have been diagnosed with or treated for a serious illness. There are many different kinds of rehabilitation facilities, those that cater for all sorts of patients and can be present in a separate facility. Rehabilitation nursing is all about providing the best care and treatment to cope with their condition and learn to condition themselves to it. Rehabilitation is aimed to provide the patient the help and attention needed to reach an optimum level of wellness and achieve a state of relative improvement in their health.
Rehab nursing is a well-equipped system of taking care of a patient as it has a long list of specialists that are involved with a patient and each member of the team is just as important as the other. The team working in the rehab includes the client, the doctor or medical specialist, a physical therapist, an occupational therapist, a physician, pharmacist, a nurse and sometimes even some person from social services, which depends on the kind of treatment required. After the client’s condition has been analyzed, the entire team works together to make a treatment plan and coordinate themselves in accordance with that plan. Rehab nursing is largely a teamwork approach to care, and it employs the services of all the members equally depending on their position and requirement for a client. Rehab nursing is not only interdisciplinary, but it is also multidisciplinary and gathers and joins information collectively so as to come up with the best treatment plan for a client. (Larsen, 2008).
The main focus of rehab nursing is not only to follow what the specialists have planned, but it is also about involving the client and actually listening to the patient and asking them what they want in their life. It is very important that the goals and needs of the client are known and
well-understood so that a satisfactory treatment can be provided. Rehabilitation nurses work with the same mission in mind that they need to help a patient who has been chronical to terminally ill, and he needs to get back to normal life as far as possible. They are crucial in providing help to the patient because they help patients deal with and realize how far they can go and where their limitations in treatment and getting better, lie. Rehab nurses also work with the patient’s family along with the patient and they make a plan for the patient’s recovery together meanwhile discussing the short-term as well as long-term outcomes of the treatment plan. (Larsen, 2008).
There are several other responsibilities that are assigned to rehab nurses. They are in charge of helping the patient with adaptation to their physical and permanent disabilities and teach them what the occupational therapist might have instructed, and they help the patient follow that routine thoroughly as per the prescribed route to treatment. Rehabilitation in itself is a very challenging and crucial task in the life of a patient, and the nurses help the patient and the family gather awareness with the issue and solve it together. (Larsen, 2008). Along with this, they help the patient with everyday life and aid in coping with day to day tasks and activities that are necessary for leading a normal life. Rehab nursing is largely independent work hence a nurse would have to work alone on one patient that has been assigned to them. There are also different settings for work as there might be a patient that could be suffering from a spinal injury or a trauma of the like hence they would be assigned to a different therapy and environment and if there is a person who suffered multiple limb fractures and needed to get back to normal would have a different setting and routine. Similarly, the setting may be varied for younger patients, middle-aged patients, and older patients. Therefore, it can have a multifaceted setting that a nurse may have to face and work in. (Larsen, 2008).
Two main nursing theories can be applied to the nursing knowledge, mainly mid-range nursing theories and grand theories. Middle range theories are narrower and focused on the specific phenomenon, but they allow for research even in the limited frame of work. Middle range theories mainly deal with factual material, one that is concrete and specific and they are focused on one point and idea. There are several middle range theories that are used broadly. They are named as Orlando’s theory of deliberative nursing process, Watson’s theory of human caring, Peplau’s theory of interpersonal relations and the Benner Model of skill acquisition in nursing. (Larsen, 2008).
There are several characteristics of middle range theories that help to classify them as distinct from other theories of nursing. Firstly, all the concepts of middle range theories are related strictly to the profession of nursing. They can be operated on and put into use easily because of their factualness. These theories are also applicable to a number of situations. Not only that, the various propositions of these theories can be associated with different conditions and can be applied likewise. This theory can be run on assumptions that can fit into its various kinds. It also dictates that the theory only needs to be applied to the audience it is made for that is only for the nurses. (Larsen, 2008).
Middle range theories are also made to put their patients and their health outcomes first, so the efforts put into nursing practices are supposed to be in accordance with the patients and their health treatment plan. Also, it must not only dictate what the nurses do but also tell how their treatment would help the patients in the long haul. Additionally, middle range theories describe in detail the nursing-related phenomena that are in association with the actions and work done by the nurses. (Larsen, 2008).
Nursing grand theories, on the other hand, are broader in scope as compared to middle range theories. These theories are a set of theoretical frameworks that incorporate other theories as well and thus are more complex than the middle range theories. (Larsen, 2008). Grand theories are more complex also because they employ global concepts in them that are designed to explain concepts and ideas in more thorough and elaborate ways which will help to provide more insight into the existing ideas and theories. These theories, however, cannot be used for empirical purposes and are not applicable for formulation or numerical use. (Larsen, 2008).
Grand theories, then, are restricted and limited to the explanation, prediction or direction of various nursing practices and their approach is more general rather than a textbook. Therefore, this makes these theories practicable too because they can be applied to a wide range of nursing situations and they can help to explain or describe many practices to the patient and the family, and the nurse can take up any approach that suits a vague situation and make it work for them accordingly. (Larsen, 2008). Grand theories cut out the need for limitation in applying any certain process to a situation. They are composed of a proper theoretical framework which shows how they need to be governed, yet their approach is very diverse. This is because they are based on the human experience and they aid to provide relevance with real situations. Grand theories also do not have any specific proposition that would help them be defined clearly, as in the case of middle range theories. The propositions can be abstract as far as clarity is concerned, and they are not concrete in any way. Also, the concepts in these theories are not defined in operation. These theories cannot be tested very clearly because of the broadness of scope and their source of development and origin in many years of study and investigation, which helps to form general opinions. (Larsen, 2008).
Therefore in rehab nursing, middle age nurseries and grand theories both can be used in equal weight because of their applicability to rehab. As it was mentioned above, rehab nursing is a multifaceted field. Therefore, there are many different kinds of patients with different conditions. In treatment, there can be patients who have simply cut out ailments that have to follow a specific route of treatment. Hence, the nurse can employ methods of middle range theories that can give them concrete methods of treatment. In cases of patients who need physical therapy or have suffered trauma and need to be treated for walking again, and then they can easily make use of the middle range theories for treating their condition.
On the other hand, for a more challenging condition such as a mental ailment or any physical disability like deafness, blindness or any other mental condition, then they can be treated through diverse ways rather than one method that would be used to treat their condition. Using the grand theories for treating these patients can help the nurses and the staff to come up with a better and perhaps more effective method of treatment of such illness. This can help to develop newer concepts and rehabilitation can be improved. The process can be quickened and improved with the help of this approach, therefore, using grand theories in rehab nursing is a useful tactic.
Conclusively, rehab nursing is a process of rehabilitation in which a chronically ill patient is given treatment by a team of specialists who help to improve the wellness of life of the patient in rehab. The middle range theories and the grand theories can be applied to rehab theories. Middle range theories are more specific and concrete whereas grand theories are diverse, broader and less specific. They can be used together in improving rehab and nursing methods.
References
Larsen, D. Pamela. (2008). “Rehabilitation Nursing.” NSNA. Retrieved from
http://www.nsna.org/Portals/0/Skins/NSNA/pdf/Imprint_Jan08_Feat_Rehab.pdf
