On the show this week, we have a panel discussion on rehabilitation nursing and the impact this area of nursing care has on patients. On the panel with me are Kristen L. Mauk, Professor of Nursing and Kreft Endowed Chair at Valparaiso University, and Michelle Camicia, President of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses. Here’s that panel discussion.

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PANEL DISCUSSION

Jamie Davis:         Kris and Michelle, welcome to Nursing Notes Live. So let’s start with Kris. Just out of curiosity, I always ask our panelists to share a little bit about their background in nursing. Tell us a little bit about why you decided to become a nurse and your career path through nursing.

Kris:                      Sure. Well, I was raised in a medical family. My dad and my brother are doctors and my mom was a nurse. So choosing something in healthcare was logical just from my upbringing but I really love just caring for people and especially I had a passion for caring for older adults. I was very close to my grandparents growing up. As they age, I just like to be around them and hear their stories and just feel kind of protected and wish that I had some more knowledge to kind of help them as they age. So that really influenced my career path into going – I went to Valparaiso University and obtained my BSN and then went on and get a Master’s and then nurse specialty in Gerontology and kept going on for more and more education related to Gerontology and Rehabilitation. So when I worked as a nursing assistant in a nursing home, I just felt like, “Wow, there’s got to be more than just custodial care.” That, for me, is where the rehabilitation piece came in. So that kind of really influenced my whole career path after – for quite a few decades now.

Jamie:                   Michelle, how about you?

Michelle:             Well, I actually started in a skilled nursing facility. My first job was working in a nursing home kitchen. I always wanted to be a veterinarian my whole entire life and I was very interested in science and caring for animals, so different kind of animals. I made friends with a nurse’s aide who work in a nursing home and they said, “Why don’t you come in and work on the unit as a nurse’s aide. So the facility paid me to go to become a nurse’s aide and I went for the training and I absolutely loved working with people. I loved working with people and, like Kris, I also very much enjoyed working with older people. And I loved helping the residents maintain their function and restore their function as a nurse’s aide and that was my early rehabilitation nursing days. Then I went to the ICU for a few years. I had a little distraction though I still, looking back, was rehabilitation nurse in that even in the ICU with post-op open heart patients and transplant patients and complex medical patients I was still working on maintaining function and promoting function even in the critically ill. Then I got back and realized that my passion was more in working with people for longer periods of time. That’s when I got into rehabilitation nursing where you spend a longer amount of time working very closely with the patients and their families and just loved watching people improve and maintain their function as well as helping them to adapt to their new lifestyle that may have resulted some disability or a disabling medical condition.

Jamie:                   You know it’s interesting how rehab nurses really are becoming so important in our current healthcare system. I know that they’ve always been important as an important part of the healthcare...