WHAT IS REHABILITATION AND WHAT ARE ITS OBJECTIVES?

Rehabilitation is a continuous process that begins at the moment of injury / illness. The general objectives of rehabilitation are: stabilization of the patient's health, independence in performing basic daily activities, re-establishment of walking without aids, if possible, otherwise providing re-movement with aids (wheelchair, stilt, crutches, walking sticks, various orthoses and or prostheses ) or at least standing, cooperation and health education work with relatives and personal assistants, the ability to return to the home environment and the regulation of problems related to profession and work.

The comprehensive medical rehabilitation program is runned by a team. The team consists of: doctors specializing in physical and rehabilitation medicine, graduate nurses, medical technicians, nurses, graduate physiotherapists, respiratory physiotherapists, graduate occupational therapists, clinical psychology specialist, graduate social worker, graduate orthotics and prosthetics engineer, if necessary also various specialists in primary pathology (internal medicine, professor of speech therapy, nutritionist, neurologist, psychiatrist, traumatologist, neurosurgeon, urologist, orthopedist, plastic surgery specialist, otorhinolaryngologist and others), if necessary a sports pedagogue and external contractors of the hospital school.

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THE ROLE OF NURSING IN REHABILITATION AND HEALTH ACTIVITIES

Patient rehabilitation is a long-term dynamic process. As a rule, it takes several years, as it is a process of learning, and  constant adaptation. Early rehabilitation is an active process with which we try to reduce the level of impairment of the patient's health, teach the patient new ways of performing daily activities and adjust the environment so that his integration into the environment is as easy and complete as possible. The goal of rehabilitation is to restore the patient's independence within the limits set by the degree of his disability. Most patients set high standards in this regard and want to be as independent as possible in order to achieve them. Others, especially the elderly, may experience daily tasks as threatening, abandon learning, and remain dependent on the help of others. All this represents a great stress for the patient, so he needs a lot of psychological support, perseverance and trust in rehabilitation.

The nurse helps the patient to perform those basic life activities that he is not able to perform on his own. In those life activities that the patient performs independently or partially independently, it is the duty of the nurse to encourage him and help him to strengthen them.

Rehabilitation always strives to prevent new complications that can endanger the patient's health.

 

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