The perceived role of the nurse in stroke rehabilitation

Abstract

The study sought to identify what is the perceived role of the nurse in stroke rehabilitation. This was obtained by an interview schedule that consisted of open ended questions collecting mainly qualitative data. Interviews were held with a convenience sample consisting of ten registered nurses currently working at Zammit Clapp Hospital. The interviews were tape recorded and then transcribed. Content analysis was used to categorize the responses of each open-ended question. The findings indicated that all the nurses have an idea of the goals of rehabilitation although they expressed the view that these goals are ideals which are sometimes unachievable due to a number of limitations. Moreover, some nurses did not perceive rehabilitation as a holistic concept or as being patient-centered. The findings also disclosed that nurses have a role to play in stroke rehabilitation. They mainly perceived their role as an informal assessor of the patient 's needs, a primary care giver, a supporter of the activities initiated by the other health care professionals, a referrer to these professionals, a facilitator of the patient to carry out self-cam activities and a psychological helper. The research study also revealed that the nurses interviewed, do not seem to have a clear view of what is their core expertise in stroke rehabilitation.