The 24 hour Approach to Rehabilitation

What is the 24 hour approach to rehabilitation?

Optimising the rehabilitation potential of all patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Who may benefit from the 24 hour approach to rehabilitation?
Any patient undergoing rehabilitation

How is this achieved?

Rehabilitation Assistants (RA's)

• Instead of Nursing Assistants or Auxiliaries, we have Rehabilitation Assistants (RA's)
• RA's are competent in a variety of therapeutic areas e.g. continence assessment, moving and handling, cognitive rehabilitation and assisting patients with exercise programs.
• These competencies allow staff to continue rehabilitation at any intervention, whether this is practicing a transfer when assisting a patient to toilet over night, orientating a patient to their environment or encouraging them with their exercises at the weekend.  A Rehabilitation Assistant with a patient in the motorised standing frame

Therapy Shifts

● Occupational Therapy and Physiotherapy staff work shifts through the week to increase their availability for staff and patient support.

● This allows for more involvement with a patients daily routine, from therapeutic washing and dressing in the morning to evening mealtimes.

Rehabilitation Files

● All patients have rehabilitation files in which they set goals

(with support from staff).

● Each goal will have activities to support it

e.g. Goal - to walk 10m with a frame.

● Activities could include:

- Exercises to do in the gym with staff

- Exercises to do with family / friends

- Walking practice with Physiotherapist.

● By having options without direct therapist involvement, a patient has more opportunities to practice new skills e.g. evenings and weekends with other staff or family/friends.

● These goals are reviewed on a weekly basis and once achieved, more can be set.

● They allow patients to see for themselves the progress they are making and enable other staff as well as family / friends to support patients in meeting their goals.