Nursing management of patients with brain injury requiring one-on-one care

Patients with traumatic brain injury currently constitute a major portion of the rehabilitation population. Although agitated, restless, and wandering behavior is an expected stage in the recovery process of these patients, issues involving the patient's and the staff's safety can arise when these behaviors are excessive and hard to control. In addition, patients may have difficulty achieving their rehabilitation goals because of these behaviors. One-on-one supervision, specialized interventions, and a structured approach often are necessary and beneficial if patients are to achieve rehabilitation goals. The facility described in this article has a large population of patients with head injury who require one-on-one supervision. Guidelines for the nursing management of two different patient populations that required two different interdisciplinary approaches were developed and established.