MULTIDISCIPLINARY REHABILITATION TEAM IN EMERGENCY ABDOMINAL SURGERY: THE ROLE OF A HOSPITAL NURSE

Abstract

Objective: to determine the role of the nurse of the surgical hospital as a member of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team in different models of rehabilitation care for the patients who have undergone emergency surgery on the abdominal cavity.Materials and methods. The study used the following methods: bibliosemantic, content analysis of legal documents of the organization of rehabilitation care and medical and technological documents for standardization of medical care, structural and logical analysis and descriptive modeling.Results. Nowadays, regarding the regulation of medical and rehabilitation care, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine stands on the position of widespread use of international guidelines for treatment and diagnosis of diseases in the health care system , without requiring strict adherence to unified clinical protocols approved by relevant orders. According to the existing medical and technological documents, all the patients, who have undergone emergency surgery on the abdominal organs, need rehabilitation care during their stay in the surgical hospital in the early postoperative period. There are currently no clear requirements for full-fledged staffing of rehabilitation care on the basis of a multidisciplinary approach. Therefore, there is a need to develop adaptive models for organizing the work of multidisciplinary rehabilitation teams and the formation of the role and functions of individual participants. Within all possible components of the multidisciplinary team in the adaptive model there are only two left as its regular members – namely those that are determined by the requirements of the conditions of procurement of medical services. Another compulsory structural components are to be involved as external consultants. The role and functions of such a team member as a hospital nurse change significantly. She is additionally entrusted with certain functions of a physical therapist's assistant (if necessary, an occupational therapist's assistant) as well as the role of a case manager of the patient's case with the function of communication with external consultants.Conclusions. The optimal organizational model of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation team in a surgical hospitals can not be implemented today in all surgical clinics to ensure the implementation of rehabilitation programs for patients who have undergone surgery on the abdominal organs. The adaptive organizational model of the multidisciplinary rehabilitation team in a surgical hospital involves a significant change in the role and function of the hospital nurse.