Impacts of tailored, rehabilitation nursing care on functional ability and quality of life in hospitalized elderly patients after rib fractures

Rehabilitation nursing care in the acute phase of diseases with physical disabilities: A concept analysis study

BACKGROUND

Despite the importance of rehabilitation nursing care in improving patient outcomes, the provision of this care in the early stages of diseases and injuries is limited. In this situation, analyzing the concept of rehabilitation nursing care can increase nurses' understanding of this concept and improve the provision of rehabilitation nursing care in the acute phase. This study aimed to analyze the concept of rehabilitation nursing care in acute phase of diseases with physical disability.

METHOD

Walker and Avant's approach to concept analysis was performed in eight stages, including choosing a concept, determining the purpose of analysis, identifying all uses of the concept, defining attributes, identifying a model case, identifying borderline and contrary cases, identifying antecedents and consequences, and defining empirical referents.

RESULTS

The important characteristics of rehabilitation nursing are comprehensive, education-based, specialized, client and family centered, interprofessional, and need-based. The antecedents of rehabilitation nursing care are related to nurses, the care settings and the nursing profession. The most important consequence of rehabilitation nursing care is improving the quality of life of patients. Rehabilitation nursing care also has positive outcomes for nurses and the healthcare systems.

CONCLUSION

The findings indicate that rehabilitation nursing care has several attributes that require antecedents such as knowledge and specialized skills such as teamwork skills, effective communication skills, cultural sensitivity, holistic perspective, intuitive thinking, and reasoning. The most important consequence of rehabilitation nursing care is improving the quality of life of patients.

Management of Advanced Aged Patients with Rib Fractures: Current Evidence and Review of the Literature

Elderly patients (age > 60 years old) represent the majority of the victims of major trauma, and rib fractures account for 10% of all trauma admissions. Due to the growing interest in surgical rib fixation and the lack of evidence on the best treatment available, we aimed to compare the conservative and operative approaches among the elderly population with multiple rib fractures. The systematic review identified seven eligible studies from over 321 papers collected through the database screening process. The mortality rate, considered the primary outcome, was higher in the conservative-treated group than the operatively-treated patients (8.3% vs. 3%). Considering the secondary outcomes investigated, the overall intensive care unit stay and in-hospital length of stay were longer in the operatively-treated patients (6.3 and 13.3 vs. 4.7 and 7.7, respectively). Conversely, the operative treatment showed favorable results regarding the pneumonia complication rate (5.8% vs. 9.6%), while the duration of mechanical ventilation was similar for both treatments. Surgical stabilization of rib fractures in the elderly population appears to be associated with a survival advantage and avoiding pulmonary complications. However, the individual contribution of operative and conservative treatment in reducing morbidity and mortality in the elderly with multiple rib fractures remains unclear.