Department of Rehabilitation Medicine

rimary nursing is the delivery model at The Mount Sinai Hospital. This model is based upon our commitment to patient- and family centered care and professional nursing practice.

Each patient is assigned a primary nurse who assumes responsibility and 24-hour accountability for the planning, coordinating, and delivery of care from admission through discharge. Primary nursing is characterized by a shared understanding of patient care needs and joint decision making with the patient/family, nurses, physicians, and other team members to enhance the patient/family's involvement in care decisions, the effectiveness of the interdisciplinary plan, and the outcomes of care.

The primary nurse has many ongoing responsibilities in caring for the SCI patient. Nursing care responsibilities include maintaining skin integrity and preventing pressure ulcers, bowel and bladder management, education about the effects SCI has on the body system, medication teaching, and discharge planning. The nurse to patient ratio is about 1:4, including the assistance of trained Patient Care Associates (advanced nursing assistants).

Primary nursing allows for individualized plans of care to be created for smooth entry back into the community. One plan a primary nurse may use is an Independent Living Experience. This experience places emphasis on discharge planning and simulates a patient's "typical day" at home, away from the nursing unit, in the Activity of Daily Living Room. Under the supervision of the patient's primary nurse, the patient/caregiver can demonstrate proficiency in activities of daily living, transfers and mobility, medication regimen, bathing activities, general problem solving skills, and skin and bowel and bladder routines. The successful day Independent Living Experience is a prerequisite for a patient to have an overnight Independent Living Experience with or without a family member.

The Mount Sinai registered nurses remain experts in the field of rehabilitation by self study, attending continued education conferences, achieving accreditation as Certified Registered Rehabilitation Nurses, and being active members of the Association of Rehabilitation Nurses and the American Association of Spinal Cord Injury Nurses.