In rehabilitation nursing, the patient classification systems or acuity models and nurse‐staffing ratios are not supported by empirical evidence. Moreover, there are no studies published characterizing nursing hours per patient day, proportion of RN staff, and impact of agency nurses in inpatient rehabilitation settings. The purpose of this prospective observational study was to describe rehabilitation nurse staffing patterns, to validate the impact of rehabilitation nursing on patient outcomes, and to test whether existing patient measures on severity and outcomes in rehabilitation could be used as a proxy for burden of care to predict rehabilitation nurse staffing ceilings and daily nurse staffing requirements. A total of 54 rehabilitation facilities in the United States, stratified by geography, were randomly selected to participate in the study.

The purpose of this article is to present a conceptual model and graphic representation of holistic nursing to assist in its application to other subspecialty nursing practices, specifically medical rehabilitation. This article demonstrates how the components of holistic nursing are compatible and even synergistic with rehabilitation nursing principles and practice. Examples of holistic nursing components included in this article include the nurse as a healing environment, intention, self-care, and intuition. This article also explains how holistic nursing principles are theoretically consistent with the World Health Organization model on disability and health, particularly internal and external contextual factors of the International Classification of Functioning (ICF), Disability and Health, or ICF model.

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This study tested a delivery of care model that maximizes the role of the registered nurse in rehabilitation by providing care based on the scope of practice exclusive to the registered nurse and supplementing that practice with licensed and non‐licensed support personnel. The model of care was developed as a response to the nursing shortage. The model attempts to best utilize the limited resource of registered nurse staffing. The nursing shortage is a national and global public health problem that is expected to intensify as the nursing population ages. The hypothesis was that when the rehabilitation registered nurse is allowed to function in areas for which they are exclusively trained, job satisfaction will significantly improve as long as there is sufficient support staff to provide for non‐essential functions. The conceptual model for the study is based on Donabedian's model which demonstrates the relationship between satisfaction and patient outcomes. Results indicated that after an initial stage of discomfort resulting from a change in role expectations nurse satisfaction improved when registered nurses functioned within their exclusive scope of practice.

This article describes the concept of disability as a culture, discusses key components of cross-cultural communication with people with disabilities, and identifies the key elements of providing culturally competent care to people with disabilities. To gain an understanding of cultural competence, it is important to understand the concepts and definitions of culture, disability, and competence. The World Health Organization classification of functioning, disability, and health will be used as the theoretical model in the discussion on disability. J. Campinha-Bacote's Cultural Competent Model of Care is used as the theoretical model for the discussion on cultural competence.