acute rehab - rest or not to rest?

[Lola77]

I work in a hospital on the acute rehab floor. We try to keep our patients out of bed as much as possible, but sometimes they cry and scream to get back into bed and sometimes the families yell at us to put them back. Of course, we also have family yell at us if they come in to find their mother/father/spouse in bed instead of sitting up.

Obviously, if the patient is in pain or other distress, I put them to bed. But if they are just a bit tired or cranky or lazy or whatever (please don't yell at me for calling a patient lazy - if you work in rehab, you KNOW there are some patients who are truly lazy. I am not talking about the 95 yr old lady with a stroke. . .)

What is good solid rational I can use with A&O patients and families for keeping patients sitting up and out of bed?

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

What is good solid rational I can use with A&O patients and families for keeping patients sitting up and out of bed?

I gently explain, in terms that the patient and family can understand, that many terrible setbacks could occur as a result of laying in bed while immobile. The patient could develop a blood clot if (s)he lays in bed too much. The patient's bowels could slow down to the point where they could develop an obstruction. Any number of other things could happen that could keep the patient in the hospital longer than necessary, so explain that it is in their best interest to be up and out of bed.

[mom2cka]

I've asked many times - "Would you eat supper in bed at home," and "how much time do you spend in bed at home?" Nicely, politely, with an emphasis on how we're trying to get the patient back to a "normal" routine as much as possible.

[tokidoki7, ASN, RN]

I work in a hospital on the acute rehab floor. We try to keep our patients out of bed as much as possible, but sometimes they cry and scream to get back into bed and sometimes the families yell at us to put them back. Of course, we also have family yell at us if they come in to find their mother/father/spouse in bed instead of sitting up.

What is good solid rational I can use with A&O patients and families for keeping patients sitting up and out of bed?

Meanwhile the unit is short staffed and the family members are impatient, yet no one wants to lift a hand to help. Some of these patients are too heavy. Where I work patients are required to sit in a chair for two meals, usually breakfast and lunch. *When patients are sitting up in a chair they are using their abdominal and leg muscled as well as improving their breathing capacity.*This is what I tell patients and family members.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

We try to keep our patients out of bed as much as possible, but sometimes they cry and scream to get back into bed and sometimes the families yell at us to put them back. Of course, we also have family yell at us if they come in to find their mother/father/spouse in bed instead of sitting up.

My job would be so easier if the families and visitors could be controlled (or gone). Bedside nursing is one of the few so-called 'professions' where families get to tell you how to do your job.