Using rehabilitation theory to teach medical-surgical nursing to undergraduate students

Medical-surgical nursing has been taught at the undergraduate level using several approaches (Bocchi, Pessuto, & Dell'Aqua, 1996; Hinzman, 1996). Although a review of the literature indicates that nursing schools have had some success offering classes that focus on rehabilitation principles and theory, there is no literature about medical-surgical nursing that is taught from a rehabilitation perspective. This article describes an undergraduate medical-surgical nursing course that teaches students how to care for the chronically ill using rehabilitation theory and principles.