Set up a nursing rehab tech program
December 1, 1997 2 minutes read
Set up a nursing rehab tech program
The Rehabilitation Institute at Santa Barbara (CA) has had success recently with using nursing rehab techs (NRTs) to improve patient care and lower costs. If your facility is considering a similar program, here are some tips you can use from Maggie Wordell, RN, CRRN, director of education, who coordinated the training course for the Rehabilitation Institute:
4 Require certified nurse assistants (CNAs) to apply for the program. You learn a lot about the candidates through the admissions process, Wordell says.
4 Choose nurse preceptors who train the techs carefully and train them well. Some nurses may be highly skilled clinicians, but are not necessarily good teachers, she adds.
4 Conduct the training at the CNA level. Don’t overwhelm students with highly technical information they won’t need.
4 Allow enough time for candidates to practice their skills.
4 Make sure there is a good relationship between each preceptor and the NRT candidate. Wordell had to switch some pairs because of personality conflicts.
4 Give the NRTs a financial reward for their higher level of contribution to patient care.
4 Make sure candidates are competent in their CNA skills before they take on additional training.
4 Encourage the nursing staff to delegate the skills to the NRTs. This is a critical step because many times your nurses may resist giving up some of their duties. Managers need to watch for this problem and monitor how tasks are delegated.
The Rehab Institute allows these techs to do a wide range of activities, including blood glucose monitoring, positioning affected extremities, dressing simple wounds, starting and discontinuing tube feeding, wrapping amputee stumps, and applying stabilization devices.
[Editor’s note: For full coverage of how the Rehabilitation Institute of Santa Barbara cut costs and improved care with its rehab tech program, see the December 1997 issue of Rehab Continuum Report, a sister publication to Patient-Focused Care. Call customer service at (800) 688-2421 to request a sample issue.]
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