<p>Rehabilitation is an evolving and developing collaborative discipline. The nursing role is pivotal to the success of the government’s agenda for service development and modernisation. This article presents a new framework of rehabilitation as a mechanism for clarifying and understanding the value of nursing’s all-encompassing, complex role. The framework aims to contribute to the developing body of knowledge relating to the specialty, offering an opportunity for nurses to challenge their practice through a systematic re-evaluation of their approach.</p>