Keys to a Successful Restorative Nursing Program

Restorative nursing programs affect a resident?s quality of life, facility survey outcomes, both Medicaid and Medicare reimbursement, and resident/family facility choice. These programs are vital to your facility's overall success, your residents' ability to thrive and maintain dignity, and a facility staff's job satisfaction.

Resident centered, whole person restorative nursing care is more important now than it has ever been. OBRA 1987 required skilled nursing facilities to identify and act on risk factors to prevent functional decline in residents. It included a mandate for facilities to allow only medically unavoidable declines, and facilities are expected to plan care that will delay any decline in resident function. Functional decline can lead to depression, behaviors, withdrawal, social isolation, and complications of immobility such as pain, incontinence and pressure ulcers.

Several Quality Measures will affect and can be impacted by restorative nursing programs. These measures include:

• Percentage of long stay residents who need increased help with ADLs
• Percentage of long stay residents whose ability to walk independently worsened
• Percentage of long stay resident experiencing falls
• Percentage of long stay residents experiencing one or more falls with major injury
• Percentage of long stay low risk residents who lose control of their bowels or bladder
• Percentage of long stay residents who have a catheter inserted and left in the bladder
• Percentage of short stay residents who meet or exceed discharge function score

For restorative nursing programs to be effective and profitable, attention to - and support for - restorative nursing must come from the top. The administrator, director of nurses, and therapy director must be on board. A facility-wide culture of restorative nursing must be present. Act now and get everyone on board with this comprehensive educational program, and ensure your facility is offering resident centered restorative nursing programs to improve, maintain, or slow decline in resident function in a positive culture environment.