Mobility Enhancing Nursing Intervention

In Switzerland 100'000 people live with the consequences of neurological events and illnesses. Most events are caused by cerebral vascular events, accidents, tumors and illnesses such as Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Despite the fact that symptoms and disabilities vary based on underlying causes and individual manifestations, common in all those patients is a significant impairment in sensory function, orientation, and mobility that present a great challenge for the affected persons, their families and the health care providers. Over the years nurses in addition to other health care providers in the rehabilitation Center Valens, SG, have developed and refined interventions to specifically enhance patients' safety, body perception, kinesthetic competence, mobility and functionality, and to reduce burdens of care. The approach that has shown great promise is the mobility enhancing nursing intervention referred to as "Mobilitätsfördernde Pflegeintervention (MfP)". In a first retrospective descriptive study Suter-Riederer et al (2008)) showed a significant improvement in functional status of daily activities in agitated patients due to MfP. Method A randomized-control trial will be conducted utilizing a mixed-method design in the Neurological Clinic at the Rehabilitation Center Valens and 165 patient with stroke, MS and brain injuries will be enrolled.Demographic, medical, and functional data as well as quality of life measure will be obtained. Patients' experiences and perspectives will be explored with narrative interviews. Descriptive and inferential statistics, with p value set to .05, will be deployed to analyze quantitative data. Constant comparative analysis will be used for qualitative data. Expected results We hypothesize that the group with MfP has better score increase on the Extended Barthel Index, has less fear of falling on the Fall Efficacy Scale after 30 days and higher quality of life than the usual care group after 30 days and one months after discharge. Additionally we hypothesize that the MfP group has less falls and longer time to first fall than the usual care group. Secondary outcomes will be enhanced movement patterns and kinaesthetic competence in the intervention group compared with the control.