Development of critical care rehabilitation guidelines in clinical practice: a quality improvement project

Relevance: Rehabilitation in critical care has the potential to restore lost function and improve quality of life on discharge, but patients are often viewed as too unstable to participate in physical rehabilitation. Following a physiotherapy service evaluation of the provision of critical care rehabilitation, a number of concerns were raised in our practice. It was identified that there was a need to standardise pathways for clinical decision making in early rehabilitation so interventions are safe, timely and consistent.