Nursing - a core element of rehabilitation

AIM

2020 was been acknowledged by the World Health Organization as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. On this occasion, the Global Rehabilitation Alliance and the International Council of Nurse would like to conceptually reflect the role of nurses in rehabilitation.

BACKGROUND

Rehabilitation and nursing are strictly ingrained. Rehabilitation aims at improving, reaching and maintaining optimal functioning of persons with disability and persons with health conditions experiencing disability. Nursing is defined as use of clinical judgement in the provision of care to enable people to improve, maintain, or recover health, to cope with health problems, and to achieve the best possible quality of life. Nursing has a crucial role in all phases of rehabilitation care (acute, post-acute and long-term rehabilitation). Nurses deliver rehabilitation in many settings, in nursing homes and community-based rehabilitation. The main principle is not to deliver care for the patient but deliver care with the patient. This includes explaining, demonstrating and practising with the goal to help the patient to (re-)gain independence.

DISCUSSION

Nurses play an important role in delivering rehabilitation and are involved in all aspects of the multidimensional rehabilitation process. One of the important points is that in most settings, nurses are the professionals with a prolonged relationship with patients and families, and may have the best insight into the patients' personal and contextual factors with regard to the rehabilitation process.

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING AND/OR HEALTH POLICY

Strengthening nursing in rehabilitation is a vital factor to deliver high-quality rehabilitation and to achieve optimum outcomes. For this reason, we urge all relevant stakeholders at governmental and rehabilitation service provider levels to work towards these goals.

Effects of whole body cryo-chamber therapy on pain in patients with chronic low back pain: a prospective double blind randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND

It is believed that treatment with low temperature can reduce pain perception in chronic pain patients, including chronic low back pain patients.

AIM

To evaluate the effects of a two-week repeated intervention of -67 °C cryo-chamber in patients with chronic low back pain.

DESIGN

A prospective randomized double blind study design.

SETTING

Hospital-based outpatients department

POPULATION

Outpatients with chronic low back pain.

METHODS

Comparing intervention group (-67 °C) with higher temperature (-5 °C) which was supposed as a control group in a cryo-chamber.

RESULTS

Similar effectiveness in pain reduction in both intervention and control groups

CONCLUSION

Cryochamber therapy with -67 °C is not superior to (sham cryo chamber) with -5 °C.

CLINICAL REHABILITATION IMPACT

Cryo chambers therapy show positive effect by improving pain. For the treatment, -5 °C seems to be sufficient for these patients.

Current hydrogel solutions for repairing and regeneration of complex tissues

Hydrogel system, as one of the most important biomaterials, is widely studied because of its tremendous potential in regenerative medicine conferred by its wide range of malleable biochemical and physical characteristics, which include its biocompatibility with the elemental biomolecules in vital tissues, its high water retention capability and adjustable soft-tissue-like physicochemical properties. These properties are modifiable to facilitate the targeted tissue protected from external damaging disturbance and having the encapsulated cells' physiology-functional phenotypes induced or maintained in situ. Recently, hydrogels are increasingly used in the R&D of regenerative medicine to build complex tissue. Most of the insightful work focuses on how to select and fabricate the hydrogel models with desired physicochemical properties, flexibility of auto response to various bio-stimuli, and capability of efficiently forming the complex tissue-mimicking construct at different scales. The present review introduced the major types of hydrogeis, the desirable physicochemical properties, the current fabrication methodologies and special organ-based cases of applications of hydrogels, which are used in complex tissue engineering. In addition, this review also discussed the major hurdles faced by the R&D of hydrogel systems for complex tissue medicine.