Stroke 2: expanding the nurse's role in stroke rehabilitation

This article, the second of two considering the nurse's role in stroke rehabilitation, focuses on potential nursing contributions in a number of areas. There is scope, particularly in the community, to develop a far greater nursing role in both the acute and the postacute phases of rehabilitation. However, nurses often have ambivalent attitudes towards rehabilitation − seeing acute care as more prestigious and important. Such attitudes are developed and reinforced in basic training which gives relatively little emphasis to chronic illness.