Nursing - a core element of rehabilitation

2020 was been acknowledged by the World Health Organization as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. On this occasion, the Global Rehabilitation Alliance and the International Council of Nurse would like to conceptually reflect the role of nurses in rehabilitation.

Rehabilitation and nursing are strictly ingrained. Rehabilitation aims at improving, reaching and maintaining optimal functioning of persons with disability and persons with health conditions experiencing disability. Nursing is defined as use of clinical judgement in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health, to cope with health problems, and to achieve the best possible quality of life. Nursing has a crucial role in all phases of rehabilitation care (acute, post-acute and long-term rehabilitation). Nurses deliver rehabilitation in many settings, in nursing homes and community-based rehabilitation. The main principle is not to deliver care for the patient but deliver care with the patient. This includes explaining, demonstrating and practising with the goal to help the patient to (re-)gain independence.

Nurses play an important role in delivering rehabilitation and are involved in all aspects of the multidimensional rehabilitation process. One of the important points is that in most settings, nurses are the professionals with a prolonged relationship with patients and families, and may have the best insight into the patients' personal and contextual factors with regard to the rehabilitation process.

Strengthening nursing in rehabilitation is a vital factor to deliver high-quality rehabilitation and to achieve optimum outcomes. For this reason, we urge all relevant stakeholders at governmental and rehabilitation service provider levels to work towards these goals.