RESUMO
BACKGROUND: As the population gets older, the rehabilitation nurse's importance gets higher. The rehabilitation nurse improves the patient's quality of life, well being, and contributes to upgrade health care worldwide. It has a fundamental role in multidisciplinary healthcare teams. In our institution's orthopedics ward, there was no rehabilitation care during the weekend and holidays, due to the absence of rehabilitation nurses during that period. AIM: Ensure rehabilitation nursing care on weekends and holidays, continuing care and helping to decrease the length of stay in inpatient surgical services. METHODS: We did a retrospective analysis of the length of stay in the orthopedics ward at our hospital, after the implementation of rehabilitation care during weekends and holidays. RESULTS: In the last three years, since rehabilitation care is maintained during the weekend and holidays, the length of stay at the ward decreased. CONCLUSIONS: The results sustain the importance of rehabilitation nurses in multidisciplinary teams, and emphasize its role in reducing the length of stay at the ward with health care gains.
