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Cardiac Rehabilitation 2020
Cardiac Rehabilitation Meets 2020 Challenges with Innovative Solutions
By Tabitha Byas, BSN, RN
A cardiac and pulmonary rehab program builds on itself with each completed exercise. Every day the patient's exercises allows them to get stronger and more likely to return to their pre-interventional state. Rehab is not just about healing by exercise: It offers a wholistic approach, covering other areas including dietary and psychosocial needs. Many of these patients need encouragement and a social component more than they need a professional to help them exercise.
This year has been a very challenging year for our team due to the shutdown associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. From March until June 2020, our Cardiac Rehabilitation facility was closed, along with all other gyms throughout the state. Because of this, patients were denied the ability to exercise and an important social outlet.
Upon receiving the news our gym needed to close, our team immediately called an emergency meeting. At the meeting, the rehab team proposed to their manager and AdventHealth Cardiologist, Jeffrey Hardin, MD, MBA, FACC, a virtual solution to stay in contact with the patients. This idea would include team members providing our patients with one-on-one instruction for exercise – along with a familiar face offering encouragement and praise – from a distance. Knowing most of our patients do not have gym equipment such as bicycles or treadmills at home, the rehab team decided to get creative. They compiled videos to demonstrate types of exercise that could be completed daily within each patient’s home. In the videos, nurses and an exercise physiologist perform exercises using everyday objects such as canned vegetables for weights, a chair for simple muscle strengthening, and resistance bands.
Once the videos were produced, we proceeded to the next step of distributing the program. Our team called each patient to explain they would be receiving the instructional videos by email and how to use them. They were also informed to be on the lookout for a package from the rehab team in the mail: a “care package” consisting of resistance bands and an exercise log for daily use, along with a handwritten note of encouragement from one of the rehab team members.
