Almost 100 nursing professionals have taken their place at the first-of-its-kind NHS National Rehabilitation Centre (NRC), which has now opened its doors to patients.
The 70-bed centre, based near Loughborough and run by Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust, is dedicated to supporting patients to recover after a serious illness or injury.
Among the “bespoke workforce” are 57 registered nurses and 30 healthcare assistants.
Lucy Nankivell
NRC lead nurse Lucy Nankivell told Nursing Times: “Welcoming our first patients to the National Rehabilitation Centre was an incredibly proud moment for our nursing team and for everyone who has worked so hard to bring this vision to life.
“The NRC gives us the opportunity to deliver rehabilitation in a truly innovative way, combining specialist clinical expertise, advanced technology and personalised care to help people recover from life-changing illness and injury.
“We are especially excited to be transforming the role of rehabilitation nurses and demonstrating the impact of 24/7 rehabilitation as part of a patient’s journey, which we hope will benefit not just the patients who come through the NRC, but through future training across the country.”
The NRC is the first national hub of its kind in the NHS to focus on rehabilitation.
The centre will mainly take patients from the East Midlands but aims to lead national research, innovation and education in rehabilitation.
The long-term ambition is to make the patient care element national too, through a hub-and-spoke model, with the NRC being the hub and regional rehabilitation units being established as the spokes.
One national project that is already underway is to develop a new definition and competency framework for complex rehabilitation nursing, as reported by Nursing Times last year.
“We are especially excited to be transforming the role of rehabilitation nurses”
Lucy Nankivell
A spokesperson for the NRC confirmed that the work on the framework was still ongoing.
The NRC was funded by the government’s New Hospital Programme and it opened its doors to patients on 2 September.
Nottingham University Hospitals has crafted a clinical model for the NRC that is focused on delivering more intensive rehabilitation earlier in a patient’s journey than they would have been able to access before.
To achieve this, the trust is said to have created a “bespoke workforce and relevant training”, with nursing taking a key role at the centre.
Speaking to Nursing Times last year, then lead nurse for the NRC, Rebecca Kenny, said the ambition was to address the “unmet need” and postcode lottery in rehabilitation in the UK.
Ms Kenny also saw the launch of the NRC as a potential positive turning point for complex rehabilitation nursing, which is often misunderstood and undervalued.
She said: “What we keep saying is our strapline is around ‘revolutionising rehab’ and that’s absolutely what we want to do for rehab in general, but for rehab nursing as well.”
The NRC building has been described as state-of-the-art – it is the NHS’s first operationally carbon neutral building and features “groundbreaking technology”.
The robotics suite at the NRC
The centre has the NHS’s most comprehensive robotics suite, an innovative hoist to help patients to relearn to use their limbs, a silent nurse call system and intelligent bedside screens for patients.
Training of new rehab nurses and other professionals will be led through an NRC Academy, which will operate in collaboration with a consortium of 26 universities across England.
Both patients and staff will be encouraged to take part in research, and those behind the NRC said they expected the findings from the centre to be of international interest.
The building is located on the 365-acre countryside Stanford Hall Estate alongside the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre with which the NRC will work in partnership.
NRC patients will be able to access equipment at the defence centre, including a hydrotherapy suite and a 360-degree virtual reality rehabilitation treadmill.
On the opening, Anthony May, chief executive of Nottingham University Hospitals, said: “This is a significant moment for [the trust], for rehabilitation medicine in this country, and for the many NHS patients whose lives will be changed and restored in this pioneering facility, set in a unique location.
“Moreover, the innovation, research and knowledge generated from the NRC will help develop rehabilitation nationally and internationally.”
A patient bay at the NHS National Rehabilitation Centre
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