If your medical team has recommended short-term rehabilitation, you may have questions about this type of care, especially if this will be your first experience with rehabilitation. Perhaps the most common question people ask themselves is what they can expect a rehabilitation program to do for them. To help you answer this question, we'll review 3 goals of short-term rehabilitation. A performance goal is the typical one we focus on in rehabilitation.
This is any goal that involves measurable performance and allows patients to have at least some control over associated outcomes. In Jane's case, Jody instituted performance goals based on objective measures of Jane's progress in ambulation and strength, including Jane's ability to support her grandchild. For best results, performance objectives should always be challenging and very specific. For example, you could tell a friend that you are going to start running a certain number of miles a day, that you plan to double it by the end of summer, and that you plan to run a certain number of miles in a certain period of time for the fall.
These goals are the clearest indicators of progress and can give patients a much-needed boost. If they start to feel discouraged, you can clearly show them how far they have come. Performance goals should help your patients focus their attention on the variables under their control, recognize and celebrate incremental improvements, and achieve more positive outcomes. Learning objectives are also used effectively in healthcare settings, such as rehabilitation; they involve establishing specific outcomes, which provide a context for predicting performance.
For example, Jody prioritized learning objectives that would allow Jane to demonstrate proper self-care and management with adaptive equipment, such as a walker. In our patients with chronic pain, we set learning goals for mindful breathing techniques to treat potential pain triggers that can mitigate the harmful effects of stress. There is a promising trend for dietitians to emphasize learning goals these days. For example, some take their patients to buy food and teach them how to be more proactive in maintaining their health through nutrition and proper food choices.
In our experience, learning objectives are still too often ignored in healthcare, where the most common defect is prioritizing insurance company requirements over patient-centered care. This is unfortunate because many patients are motivated and driven by learning and often seek us specifically for prevention, information and skills, rather than just applied interventions. Intrinsic objectives are much more valuable to the patient than extrinsic objectives, which focus on external validation. For example, a total knee patient requires a certain range of motion, strength, and distance when walking.
This is very different from that same total knee patient, stating that his personal goal is to be able to walk in the park with his partner. While there may be compliance and reimbursement rules and regulations associated with certain goals in healthcare, we must work to ensure that they do not interfere with more insightful goals set by patients. Performance objectives are powerful, but they are even more so when combined with learning objectives and intrinsic objectives. My suggestion is to always include a section in the patient's notes about their personal aspirations or goals.
Patients can have a better imagined future if we remember to ask them. A few days ago, I was going through news articles about strokes and found a headline that said that the purpose of rehabilitation is to return lost skills. The first thought that crossed my mind was “more or less, since it's really just” the purpose of rehabilitation. This reaction certainly has the potential to surprise those who read it as strange.
Because really, if recovering skills lost due to injury is not the goal of rehabilitation, then what could that point be? In a post-acute rehabilitation center, there are several other vitally important aspects of rehabilitation that are equally essential in the patient's journey to long-term success in their family environment. Jane's occupational therapist, Jody, noticed the problem immediately; the goals were always to be well enough to move to the next setting, from the initial stages in the hospital to specialty care, inpatient rehabilitation, and now home health care in an assisted living facility. Another primary goal of short-term rehabilitation is to help patients achieve their best personal levels of recovery and rehabilitation as soon as is medically safe and possible. Rehabilitation goals can be short, medium, or long term and will change throughout a patient's recovery from a critical illness.
The primary purpose of rehabilitation counseling is to help people with disabilities gain or regain their independence through employment or some form of significant activity. While the time it takes varies from patient to patient, your rehabilitation team will work to help you recover and return to your life in the shortest possible time, another goal that is met by intensive, comprehensive, and highly personalized treatment plans used in the short term. rehabilitation programs. Support from a rehabilitation provider to help the veteran set, work and achieve rehabilitation goals helps build trust and a sense of hope for the future.
Restoring function and independence lost through injury, illness, surgery, stroke, or other medical events is one of the primary goals of short-term rehabilitation. This comprehensive treatment, therapy and care help ensure consistent progress toward your recovery and rehabilitation goals. To achieve this goal, you'll work with a multidisciplinary team of rehabilitation professionals to first identify your individual therapy and treatment needs, and then address those needs through a personalized treatment plan. .
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