Training of Nurses on Rehabilitation of Patients with Spinal Cord Injuries

Nursing activities and caring should be superior in spinal cord injury rehabilitation, in order to teach care to the family and the patient, nurses should have enhanced knowledge and skills about spinal cord injury and prevention of complications. The aim of the study was to evaluate the effect of a training program for nurses on rehabilitation of clients with spinal cord injuries. Design: A quasi-experimental study design. Setting: The study was conducted at the Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Rheumatology Center. Sample: A purposive sample, it targeted all rehabilitation nurses in the studied center, with total number was 100 nurses. Tools: Data were collected by using two tools: I- a structural Questionnaire to collect data about demographic characteristics of the studied nurses, II- knowledge regarding Rehabilitation nursing, Spinal cord injuries, Dysreflexia and pressure ulcer. The second tool was an observational Checklist: to assess nurses’ performance. Results: The study findings indicated that; Near two thirds of the studied nurses had a total score satisfactory knowledge regard rehabilitation nursing, increased to 100% after training, the differences observed were statistically significant, meanwhile less than half of nurse’s had total satisfactory performance of selected rehabilitation nursing skills pre training was raised to 92% after training the differences observed were statistically significant. Conclusion: the study concluded that, training of rehabilitation nurses positively affected their knowledge and performance for caring of patients with statistically significances. Recommendations: The study recommended that, planning of continuous and efficient training programs for nurses on rehabilitation nursing skills. Further researches to be carried out to study other approaches to promote rehabilitation nurses care of spinal cord injuries patients such as; sexuality counseling, pain management and muscular exercises.