Table 2.

Study themes which answer research question two: “How do nurses perform their roles to support and promote recovery of patients in stroke rehabilitation units?”.

Primary Author, Year Method Sample Quality Rating	Findings
	Teaching and Coaching	Emotional and Psychosocial Support	Care coordination, Management, Advocacy, and Collaboration
Aadal et al. (2018) Denmark Hermeneutic phenomenology N=19 Nurses Good	• Teach patients and relatives about life at home after discharge • Inform, teach, and talk with both patients and relatives to facilitate mutual understanding of the patient’s condition	• Prepare relatives to cope role as caregiver • Provide care for relatives in crisis • Create time to be with the relatives and talk to them about their feelings and how they dealt with crisis in the past • Be aware of how the relatives react to the crisis • Unable to step back from helping a patient to perform an activity	• Facilitate communication and cooperation between relatives and the care team • Sets targets with relatives and patients • Involves relatives in care planning and decision-making • Clarify the patient’s needs through the relatives • Engage relatives to contribute their knowledge and resources toward patient care
Barreca & Wilkins (2008) Canada Hermeneutic phenomenology N=8 RNs, RPNs Good	• Cue and teach patients • Help patients to relearn functional tasks	• Unable to step back from helping the patient to perform an activity	• Offer alternative interpretations to patient circumstances • Uses humor to cope with problems • Collaborates with interprofessional teams • Clarify questions from team members because of being present with patient 24×7
Burton (2000) United Kingdom Reflective inquiry N=13 RN, EN Good	• Teach patients and families the work of other therapists • Teach patients about harm prevention	• Provides comfort for patients • Helps patients to cope with their condition • Provide social support	• Coordinates the multidisciplinary teams by liaising, organizing, mediating, and planning care • Inform others about patient’s progress, coping, emotional health, social support, and home circumstances • Facilitates recovery • Advocates for patients and families
Clarke & Holts (2015) United Kingdom Mixed method: Q-methodological approach N=63 RNs Good		• Provides social and emotional support	• Collaborate with other members of the • Use multidisciplinary team approach to facilitate client’s independence • Coordinates patients, families, and team to provide quality care for patients
Dreyer et al. (2016) Denmark Hermeneutic phenomenology N=19 Nurses Good	• Train patients and relatives to perform daily living activities like bathing, brushing teeth	• Knowing patient as a person (her preferences, social/family life, ways of coping with or managing illness) facilitates provision of care, implementation of rehabilitation interventions, and accomplishment of goals • Establish therapeutic relationship with patients and families to facilitate implementation of goals set by team • Create time and hope for the patient.	• Involve patients in care planning • Integrate patient’s perspectives in goal setting • Coordinate care • Advocate for patients and families • Facilitate communication and cooperation between patients, families, and multidisciplinary team during rehabilitation • Engage relatives resource persons for support and information about patient’s condition and progress
Hill & Johnson (1999) United Kingdom Qualitative descriptive N=9 RNs Fair	• Teach and inform patients about their general condition • Train patients how to self-administer medications	• Facilitate patient’s acceptance of reality (disability) using counselling • Enable patients to take responsibility for self-care • Establish therapeutic relationship with patient	• Coordinate care and present feedback about patient’s progress to the team
Loft et al. (2017) Qualitative descriptive Denmark N=14 RNs Good	• Continuously teach patients to practice newly learned skills	• Know the patient as a person, • provide social and emotional support • Struggles to step back or perform tasks “with patient” and not of “for the patient” • Establish therapeutic relationships with patients	• Coordinates patient care, collaboration between patients, families, and multidisciplinary team

Note: EN=Enrolled Nurses; RN=Registered Nurses; RPN=Registered Practical Nurses.