Rehabilitation of Elderly Individuals with Frailty Syndrome

Introduction: Population aging, the prevalence of comorbidities, polypharmacy, dependence in the context of performing activities of daily living (ADL), and the progressive impoverishment of many citizens, among other factors, have rendered frailty syndrome a public health concern. A literature review was conducted with the goal of proposing recommendations regarding the design and implementation of rehabilitation programs that can control or mitigate this problem. Objective: Analyze the perceptions of rehabilitation programs for elderly people with frailty syndrome ex-hibited by nurses who specialize in rehabilitation nursing. Method: This research takes the form of a quantitative study rooted in the interpretivist paradigm. The participants in this research were nurses who specialized in rehabilitation nursing and had professional experience implementing rehabilitation programs for elderly people with frailty syndrome. Content analysis was performed to investigate the narratives provided by the participants, and semantic categorization was performed on the basis of the Bardin framework (2016). Results: The analysis of the narratives provided by the eleven participants in this research revealed three categories and corresponding indicators: “the meaning attributed to rehabilitation care for elderly individuals with frailty syndrome”, “professional intervention strategies” and “health gains resulting from the implementation of care strategies”. Conclusion: Rehabilitation interventions can improve the experiences of people with frailty syndrome because such interventions promote well-being and self-care. To mitigate frailty syndrome, rehabilitation programs should provide motor training, training in ADL, respiratory rehabilitation, and swallowing and elimination training. Nurses who specialize in rehabilitation nursing should pay attention to the tasks of stimulating and training clients to manage their rehabilitation programs as well as health education, the mobilization of the person and the goal of promoting adaptive capacities.