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Abstract |
Accepting the impact that paraplegic disability has on lifestyle, I felt that further investigation was warranted into the relationship of registered Nurses ( my profession) to acute paraplegic rehabilitation. The following descriptive study was based on the hypothesis that registered nurses are perceived as important in the acute rehabilitation of paraplegics. By means of a questionnaire 15 registered nurses currently employed at a spinal unit were surveyed in Auckland, and 15 community based paraplegics who were at least two years from injury were surveyed over a geographical area from Whangarei to New Plymouth. The questionnaire was designed to elicit information in two main areas. The importance of Registered Nurses in acute paraplegic rehabilitation, who else could perform their function- Respondents were equally likely to report positively as negatively. Some questions were designed to be answered objectively and others were based on individual perception. Face validity of the tool was determined by presenting it to six advanced diploma colleagues who had worked in the rehabilitation field for critique and later by a pilot study of three registered nurses and three paraplegics. There are two themes that consistently recurred: amongst paraplegics, the more medical complications experienced, the higher value placed on spinal unit nursing care. Most people recommended the spinal unit, either for work in the case of registered nurses or for rehabilitation in the case of paraplegics. A systems model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The nursing profession was depicted as the main system, each having definite and interdependent environments. By using this approach I emphasised that the importance of any part of the system is largely dependant on the view of that importance, by other parts. The analysis and interpretation of the data supported the hypothesis. This study concluded that registered nurses do play a significant role in acute paraplegic rehabilitation in the practise setting |
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