Objective

Define and develop the acquired SCI patient’s BI care within the internal unit of physical and neurological rehabilitation center of the University Hospital of Liège:

– explore the patients’ and professionals’ representations and needs of BI care;

– estimate the concordances and the dissonances of the visions;

– identify if a patient’s BI care exists within the unit and what form it takes.

Materials/Patients and methods

Qualitative, retrospective, exploratory and inductive study. Twenty-three acquired SCI patients who had been hospitalized in the unit were individually interviewed. Professionals were interviewed in 8 focused-groups and 4 individuals interviews.

Results

BI emerges as a vast and personal notion. The representations of 2 populations are multidimensional and relatively corresponding. Several elements support a positive BI: diverse attitudes of professionals, a relation of quality between professionals and patients, individual care, peer support, an integration in the unit’s social life, general information, or even education on the sexual repercussion of the SCI. Professionals report ‘lack of time’ as a limiting factor in patient’s BI care. Work experience stands out as a support for the representations of the possible repercussions of the medullary lesion on BI.

Discussion/Conclusion

The link between ‘multidisciplinary care’ and ‘BI’ can be direct or indirect. ‘BI’ and ‘self-esteem’ seem difficult to split, just like ‘BI’ and ‘disabilities’. There is actually a BI care in the unit. Nevertheless, it is not structured, not formal and not connected to the caregiver’s profession. Multidisciplinarity care and individualized care seem necessary. Several lines of reflections emerge from the interviews: well-being centered care, levers facilitating the BI discussion, a greater reliable link if a professional takes care regularly of the same person, a common philosophy of patient care, the interest to set up a rising awareness of new professionals, as well as more timesharing of the practical knowledge. In view of our results, relevant elements in the literature can be explored: the formalization of peer support, a BI systematic questioning, the support for coping strategies, the satisfaction follow-up of the hospitalized people, or even the model of Bailey and al (2015) which describes SCI patient’s positive BI.