In this case study, the author discusses how a spinal cord injury affected the achievement of developmental goals by a 73‐year‐old man for whom the usual coping mechanisms were not effective. Nurses on a neurosurgical unit, under the guidance of a rehabilitation nurse, learned how to incorporate considerations of the psychological aspects of the injury into the patient's plan of care. Strategies to intervene with growth and developmental issues had a positive impact on the patient's rate of progress in the rehabilitation sett