MODEL FOR SPINAL CORD INJURY REHABILITATION.
Contributors: University of Florida.
Published: 1990
Number of pages: 179
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Health Sciences, Rehabilitation and Therapy.
Description: The subculture which emerges on a spinal cord injury (SCI) unit directly influences rehabilitation outcomes. The purpose of this study was to explore the subculture of a SCI unit in order to describe the process of SCI rehabilitation. The research method was qualitative, combining ethnographic interviews, participant observation, and document review. The developmental research sequence model and grounded theory were used for data analysis.

Findings indicate optimal rehabilitation is a creative and individualized process of reintegration. Reintegration prepares the individual for coping with physical limitations, architectural barriers, and societal prejudices while simultaneously making the person feel intact and valued. Successful reintegration assures the newly injured SCI patient returns to a viable occupation, feels physically attractive, participates in a rich, full social life, and maintains family ties.

Four phases of reintegration emerged: buffering, transcending, toughening, and launching. The first phase, buffering, is the nurturing and protective process of helping patients to gather the physical and emotional strength necessary for a strenuous rehabilitation program. Buffering serves to lessen, absorb, or protect the newly injured SCI patient against the shock of multiple ramifications of the injury and the indignities of being a patient. The second phase, transcending, is the process of rising above the negative, stereotypical beliefs about people with disabilities. In the third phase, patients are "toughened up" physically and emotionally in preparation for community re-entry. Lastly, new injuries are launched back into the community where it is assumed that rehabilitation continues in a more natural setting. Launching is the process of exposing rehabilitation patients to the real world, exploring the range of options for living in the community, promoting patient autonomy and decision making, and facilitating the ejection of the patient from the rehabilitation program.

This study offers a new perspective for viewing rehabilitation on a spinal cord injury unit. The proposed theoretical model describes how staff go about the business of rehabilitating newly injured SCI patients. This model provides a framework for designing a prototype therapeutic milieu in SCI.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 52-01, Section: B, page: 0162.

Thesis (PH.D.)--UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA, 1990.

School code: 0070.