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Many think that specialized nursing care using high
technology is the most difficult of all nursing practice.
While technology certainly is used in rehabilitation
nursing, the constant attention to the activities of
daily living and commitment to rehabilitate a patient
to maximum ability-within the limits of the disability-is
probably the most challenging of all nursing practice.
This kind of nursing practice hit me as a graduate
student doing my rehabilitation nursing clinical practice
at Zablocki Veterans Administration Medical Center in
Milwaukee. I learned to drive a car without using my
feet-hands only. I had patients who were paralyzed from
the neck down, but could hold a paintbrush in their
mouths and be creative. Our cover story about Christopher
Reeve is a clear demonstration of the love, honor and
care that his wife, family and nurses continue to provide
him.
I learned another lesson a few years ago as I was teaching
skiing to a rather large woman who had a disability.
I questioned why we were teaching her to ski. She probably
would never be back to the mountains to ski.
Then I received a beautiful poem and letter from her
the next week. She thanked me for teaching her to ski
and said if she was never able to return, her dream
of being in the snow-skiing the mountains she could
see from her group home in Denver-was realized. I cried.
So what is this kind of nursing care all about?
It is a unitary healing, bringing the people being
cared for as a whole together with their environment.
It is responding to the wholeness of the human experience.
We should not think of people with disabilities as being
less than whole. Rehabilitation healing is the interrelationship
of parts to the whole, the unique identity of each individual.
There is more wholeness in life's spirit, motivation,
love and recognition of others by the disabled than
those who have no disability. The need for self-esteem
accomplishment and attaining the highest level of independence
is great in all of us. However, the environment has
to be adapted to the individual's disability in order
to foster optimism, energy and the potential for caregivers
to rehabilitate effectively.
I recently had a phone conversation with a friend with
Alzheimer's living in another state. He said he was
in a "funky mood," but later in our conversation
said: "Your energy is coming through to me over
the phone … ."
The hardest thing about disabilities is that there
is always change in physical ability, family relationships,
other life adjustments and significant losses. Nurses
can improve the quality of life through health promotion,
nutrition, stress management and new exercise behaviors.
Most important of all is acceptance of each person with
the uniqueness of who he or she is.
Discuss this and other topics with your colleagues
at www.nurseweek.com/rnvillage
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