Rehabilitation nursing and patient rights: a scoping review

Introduction: Rehabilitation concentrates more on prevention or reduction of impairment of some disability than on treatment of diseases. In 2008, the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities introduced the primary legal basis for the recognition of rehabilitation as a component of the right to health1. In this context, rehabilitation nursing practice is especially important because preserves the ability of people with disabilities by means of the most important dimensions of human life, including participation in education, employment, and social life. Objective: The objective in this study is to examine and map the scientific evidences about rehabilitation nursing and patient rights. Method: In this study, the scoping review proposal of the Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) was used2. For the research question, the Population, Concept e Context (PCC) strategy for a scoping review was applied. These were defined as follows: P – patients; C – patient rights and C - rehabilitation nursing. The following guiding question was established: “What scientific evidence has been produced on the patient rights in the rehabilitation nursing context?”. As for the initial search strategy, the databases used were Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) and the platform Web of Science. After, the databases used were The Cochrane Library, CINAHL, Literatura Latino-Americana e do Caribe em Ciências da Saúde (LILACS), Academic Search Premier (via EBSCO platform), National Library of Medicine (PubMed), SCOPUS; and Web of Science. The key words established were patients, patient rights, rehabilitation and nursing. For the search in the other databases and platform, the descriptors Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) and the Descritores em Ciências da Saúde (DeCS) were also used handicapped advocacy and human rights. The Gray Literature was identified through Brazilian theses and dissertations in the Capes Thesis Base and international theses and dissertations in Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD). Subsequently the search, studies in English, Spanish and Portuguese were included, with a quantitative and qualitative approach, primary studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and/or meta-syntheses, books and guidelines, published or not-published until date. In total, 214 studies were found. After exhaustive reading of titles and abstracts, 10 were selected to read the complete version. Among these 10 articles fully read, four complied with the study objective and were included. Results: The studies included in this review were developed between 2006 and 2016, mainly in English. Findings showed that rehabilitation nursing practice is related to the patient rights such as improved in terms of activities of daily living, self-care skills, individual perceptions of the patient rights, enhanced quality of life for patient and their family, informed decision making and participation in policy making processes. Conclusions: Despite the limitation of the studies found, the constant growth of the literature on the theme was observed, confirming a significant evolution the studies regarding to right to access, dignity and respect in rehabilitation nursing.