Striving to establish patient participation in rehabilitation: the challenges experienced by nursing staff when changing practice to include the patient's perspective

Even though nursing staff found patient participation to be vital for individualised rehabilitation, it was difficult to include the patient's perspective. The inclusion was challenged on a personal level, within the nursing group, and in the organisation due to prioritizing physical nursing tasks over the patient's perspective. Thus, the nursing staff struggled to change their nursing practice and to convince their colleagues and leaders that the rehabilitation should be re-organised to perform their nursing role to the full. This indicated a need to work on the attitude and approach of the entire organisation to promoting patient participation and nursing rehabilitation.