What is rehabilitation nursing?

[Holly2012]

Hi, my name is Holly, and I'm considering becoming a Rehab Nurse. However, I don't fully understand what an RN does. Can someone who is currently an RN give me a "day-in-the-life" kind of account of their job? How hands on is Rehab Nursing? Does RNursing allow the nurse to do some physical/occupational therapy?

Thanks,

Holly

[JZ_RN]

If you want to to physical or occupational therapy you should just become a PT/OT. RNs don't do that kind of stuff, even ina rehab facility the most I ever did in therapy was assess vitals for someone who was tired or having chest pain or shortness of breath during therapy or giving pain meds to people who whined through therapy.

[TheCommuter, BSN, RN]

Click on the link below to read this piece that I wrote about rehabilitation nursing last month:

https://allnurses.com/rehabilitation-nursing/rehabilitation-nursing-specialty-745264.html

[sbostonRN]

Really the major difference between a acute-care RN in a traditional hospital, and a rehab RN in a rehab hospital or LTAC, is that the rehab RN is more focused on getting the patient back to their previous level of independence. You really have to push people to do things for themselves. Many of the recommendations for bed to chair transfers and amount of assistance come from the rehab team, not directly from the MD (though they do work with a physiatrist). I feel like it's more of a team approach between medicine, nursing, and rehab.