Diagnosis and Management of Cerebral Venous Thrombosis: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Cerebral venous thrombosis accounts for 0.5% to 3% of all strokes. The most vulnerable populations include young individuals, women of reproductive age, and patients with a prothrombotic state. The clinical presentation of cerebral venous thrombosis is diverse (eg, headaches, seizures), requiring a high level of clinical suspicion. Its diagnosis is based primarily on magnetic resonance imaging/magnetic resonance venography or computed tomography/computed tomographic venography. The clinical course of cerebral venous thrombosis may be difficult to predict. Death or dependence occurs in 10% to 15% of patients despite intensive medical treatment. This scientific statement provides an update of the 2011 American Heart Association scientific statement for the diagnosis and management of cerebral venous thrombosis. Our focus is on advances in the diagnosis and management decisions of patients with suspected cerebral venous thrombosis. We discuss evidence for the use of anticoagulation and endovascular therapies and considerations for craniectomy. We also provide an algorithm to optimize the management of patients with cerebral venous thrombosis and those with progressive neurological deterioration or thrombus propagation despite maximal medical therapy.

Results From the Perceived Value of Certification Tool-12 Survey: Analysis of the Perceived Value of Certification Among Stroke and Neuroscience Nurses.

ABSTRACT: AIM: The purpose of this study was to explore the perceived value of certification among those with a neuroscience or stroke nursing certification. METHODS: The Perceived Value of Certification Tool-12 (PVCT-12) consists of 12 value statements related to the benefits of certification, using a 4-point Likert scale ranging from strongly disagree to strongly agree. Descriptive statistics were used to determine the percentage of agreement among respondents with each of the PVCT-12 items. A generalized linear model approach was then used to estimate the associations between age, sex, race, experience, certification, highest degree earned, primary responsibility, and primary work setting with intrinsic and extrinsic values. An exploratory factor analysis was performed to identify factors on which related variables were found. RESULTS: The 632 certificants were predominantly female (90%) with a mean age of 54 years. Approximately 80% were White, followed by Asian (11%), Hispanic (4%), and Black (3%). Certification included certified neuroscience registered nurse (34%), stroke certified registered nurse (47%), or both (20%). Approximately 57% of the certificants work in critical care/medical-surgical units. Work setting included academic (46%) and community (42%). Responses indicated lower levels of agreement with the value statements regarding certification challenges, professional autonomy, being listened to, and monetary gain. Those in administration had statistically significant higher intrinsic and extrinsic value scores ( P = .005) as compared with those in nonadministrative roles. There was no significant difference on perceived intrinsic or extrinsic values for those who work in an academic environment versus those who work in a community environment ( P = .25). After factor analysis, the PVCT-12 was found to have 3 factors that accounted for 53.4% of the total variation in the data: recognition of specialization, personal achievement, and professional accomplishment. CONCLUSION: The PVCT-12 incorporated a Likert-type scale to provide levels of agreement for intrinsic and extrinsic values among stroke certified registered nurses and certified neuroscience registered nurses. To complement these findings, further research using open-ended questions is needed to improve our understanding of participant responses regarding complex values such as "autonomy" and the "extent of being listened to."

Care of the Patient With Acute Ischemic Stroke (Posthyperacute and Prehospital Discharge): Update to 2009 Comprehensive Nursing Care Scientific Statement: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

In 2009, the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association published a comprehensive scientific statement detailing the nursing care of the patient with an acute ischemic stroke through all phases of hospitalization. The purpose of this statement is to provide an update to the 2009 document by summarizing and incorporating current best practice evidence relevant to the provision of nursing and interprofessional care to patients with ischemic stroke and their families during the acute (posthyperacute phase) inpatient admission phase of recovery. Many of the nursing care elements are informed by nurse-led research to embed best practices in the provision and standard of care for patients with stroke. The writing group comprised members of the Stroke Nursing Committee of the Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing and the Stroke Council. A literature review was undertaken to examine the best practices in the care of the patient with acute ischemic stroke. The drafts were circulated and reviewed by all committee members. This statement provides a summary of best practices based on available evidence to guide nurses caring for adult patients with acute ischemic stroke in the hospital posthyperacute/intensive care unit. In many instances, however, knowledge gaps exist, demonstrating the need for continued nurse-led research on care of the patient with acute ischemic stroke.

Pandemic Guidance for Stroke Centers Aiding COVID-19 Treatment Teams.

The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has in some regions overwhelmed the capacity and staffing needs of healthcare systems, necessitating the provision of resources and staff from different disciplines to aid COVID treatment teams. Stroke centers have multidisciplinary clinical and procedural expertise to support COVID treatment teams. Staff safety and patient safety are essential, as are open lines of communication between stroke center leaders and hospital leadership in a pandemic where policies and procedures can change or evolve rapidly. Support needs to be allocated in a way that allows for the continued operation of a fully capable stroke center, with the ability to adjust if stroke center volume or staff attrition requires.

The Projected Transition Trajectory for Survivors and Carers of Patients Who Have Had a Stroke.

Survivors of stroke require long-term follow-up with a focus on rehabilitation, prevention of depression and anxiety, and support for carer. Research is needed in many areas of poststroke care to identify interventions that may ameliorate the sequelae.

Standards for Studies of Neurological Prognostication in Comatose Survivors of Cardiac Arrest: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Significant improvements have been achieved in cardiac arrest resuscitation and postarrest resuscitation care, but mortality remains high. Most of the poor outcomes and deaths of cardiac arrest survivors have been attributed to widespread brain injury. This brain injury, commonly manifested as a comatose state, is a marker of poor outcome and a major basis for unfavorable neurological prognostication. Accurate prognostication is important to avoid pursuing futile treatments when poor outcome is inevitable but also to avoid an inappropriate withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment in patients who may otherwise have a chance of achieving meaningful neurological recovery. Inaccurate neurological prognostication leading to withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment and deaths may significantly bias clinical studies, leading to failure in detecting the true study outcomes. The American Heart Association Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science Subcommittee organized a writing group composed of adult and pediatric experts from neurology, cardiology, emergency medicine, intensive care medicine, and nursing to review existing neurological prognostication studies, the practice of neurological prognostication, and withdrawal of life-sustaining treatment. The writing group determined that the overall quality of existing neurological prognostication studies is low. As a consequence, the degree of confidence in the predictors and the subsequent outcomes is also low. Therefore, the writing group suggests that neurological prognostication parameters need to be approached as index tests based on relevant neurological functions that are directly related to the functional outcome and contribute to the quality of life of cardiac arrest survivors. Suggestions to improve the quality of adult and pediatric neurological prognostication studies are provided.

Temporal Trends in Fall Rates with the Implementation of a Multifaceted Fall Prevention Program: Persistence Pays Off.

BACKGROUND: Most fall prevention programs are only modestly effective, and their sustainability is unknown. An academic medical center implemented a series of fall prevention interventions from 2001 to 2014. METHODS: The medical center's series of fall prevention interventions were as follows: reorganized the Falls Committee (2001), started flagging high-risk patients (2001), improved fall reporting (2002), increased scrutiny of falls (2005), instituted hourly nursing rounds (2006), reorganized leadership systems (2007), standardized fall prevention equipment (2008), adapted to a move to a new hospital building (2008), routinely investigated root causes (2009), mitigated fall risk during hourly nursing rounds (2009), educated patients about falls (2011), and taught nurses to think critically about risk (2012). To evaluate temporal trends in falls and injury falls, piecewise negative binomial regression with study unit-level random effects was used to analyze structured validated data sets available since 2003. RESULTS: From July 2003 through December 2014, the crude fall rate declined from 3.07 to 2.22 per 1,000 patient days, and injury falls declined from 0.77 to 0.65 per 1,000 patient days. Nonsignificant increases in falls occurred after nurses started rounding hourly and after the move to the new hospital. On the basis of regression models, significant declines occurred after nurses began to mitigate fall risk during hourly rounds (p = 0.009). CONCLUSION: Instituting incremental changes for more than a decade was associated with a meaningful (about 28%) and sustained decline in falls, although the rate of decline varied over time. Hospitals interested in reducing falls but concerned about competing clinical and financial priorities may find an incremental approach to be effective.

Reflections on 50 Years of Neuroscience Nursing: Publication Trends in Neurotrauma.

In 2018, the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses will celebrate its 50th anniversary as the premier member organization for neuroscience nurses. In recent decades, one of the highest rated member benefits has been the ability for members to join special focus groups (SFGs). The SFGs were initiated to allow an avenue for information sharing and communication for neuroscience nurses in a variety of subspecialties. In this anniversary edition, the neurotrauma SFG presents a review of trends in the publication of articles in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing related to neurotrauma. Findings from this article illustrate how these publications have impacted the nursing care of patients who have sustained traumatic injuries of the central and peripheral nervous system and the integral role of neuroscience nurses throughout the decades.

Poststroke Fatigue: Emerging Evidence and Approaches to Management: A Scientific Statement for Healthcare Professionals From the American Heart Association.

At least half of all stroke survivors experience fatigue; thus, it is a common cause of concern for patients, caregivers, and clinicians after stroke. This scientific statement provides an international perspective on the emerging evidence surrounding the incidence, prevalence, quality of life, and complex pathogenesis of poststroke fatigue. Evidence for pharmacological and nonpharmacological interventions for management are reviewed, as well as the effects of poststroke fatigue on both stroke survivors and caregivers.

Effects of the Use of the Provider Resilience Mobile Application in Reducing Compassion Fatigue in Oncology Nursing.

BACKGROUND: Oncology nurses have increased exposure to the prolonged illness, tragedy, loss, and premature death of patients. As a result, they are at higher risk for developing compassion fatigue. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to examine if use of the Provider Resilience mobile application (PRMA) will improve oncology nurses' professional quality of life. METHODS: The quasiexperimental design was comprised of a longitudinal approach to evaluate the effect of an intervention program, PRMA, on professional quality of life between two nonrandomized groups (intervention and control) using pre- and post-tests in a sample of oncology RNs. FINDINGS: The findings of this study demonstrated no significant relationships between the intervention and control groups on secondary traumatic stress, compassion satisfaction, and burnout among oncology nurses.

Is Spending More Time Associated With Less Missed Care?: A Comparison of Time Use and Missed Care Across 15 Nursing Units at 2 Hospitals.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between nursing time use and perceptions of missed care. BACKGROUND: Recent literature has highlighted the problem of missed nursing care, but little is known about how nurses' time use patterns are associated with reports of missed care. METHODS: In 15 nursing units at 2 hospitals, we assessed registered nurse (RN) perceptions of missed care, observed time use by RNs, and examined the relationship between time spent and degree of missed care at the nursing unit level. RESULTS: Patterns of time use were similar across hospitals, with 25% of time spent on documentation. For 6 different categories of nursing tasks, no association was detected between time use, including time spent on documentation, and the degree of missed care at the nursing unit level. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing time use cannot fully explain variation in missed care across nursing units. Further work is needed to account for patterns of missed care.

Treatment of Guillain-Barré syndrome.

Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an idiopathic postinfectious immune disease that leads to progressive motor weakness due to damage to the myelin sheath. Epidemiological studies have linked GBS to infections from Campylobacter jejuni, Cytomegalovirus, and other pathogens. The syndrome includes multiple subtypes, with the most common being ascending motor weakness. Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin and plasma exchange reduces the time for recovery to occur, although some remain disabled.

Clinical nurse specialists shaping policies and procedures via an evidence-based clinical practice council.

In the practice of nursing, organizations with progressive evidence-based practice programs implement structures and processes whereby nurses are engaged in the review of existing research and in the development of clinical practice documents to better align nursing practices with the best available scientific knowledge. At our academic hospital system, clinical nurse specialists (CNSs) took the lead to help transform a traditional nursing policy and procedure committee into a hospital-wide, staff-represented Clinical Practice Council (CPC) that ensures evidence-based nursing practices are reflected in the organization's nursing practice documents for the provision of patient care. Clinical nurse specialists function as mentors and cochairs who are dedicated to ensuring that nursing practice is supported by the latest evidence and committed to guiding staff nurses to continually move their practice forward. The success of the CPC is due to the leadership and commitment of the CNSs. This article describes the structure, process, and outcomes of an effective CPC where CNSs successfully engage frontline clinicians in promoting nursing care that is evidence based. Clinical nurse specialist leadership is increasingly made visible as CNSs effectively involve staff nurses in practice reforms to improve patient outcomes.

A comparison of vital signs charted by nurses with automated acquired values using waveform quality indices.

OBJECTIVE: (1) To investigate if there exist any discrepancies between the values of vital signs charted by nurses and those recorded by bedside monitors for a group of patients admitted for neurocritical care. (2) To investigate possible interpretations of discrepancies by exploring information in the alarm messages and the raw waveform data from monitors. METHODS: Each charted vital sign value was paired with a corresponding value from data collected by an archival program of bedside monitors such that the automatically archived data preceded the charted data and had minimal time lag to the charted value. Next, the absolute differences between the paired values were taken as the discrepancy between charted and automatically-collected data. Archived alarm messages were searched for technical alarms of sensor/lead failure types. Additionally, 7-min waveform data around the place of large discrepancy were analyzed using signal abnormality indices (SAI) for quantifying the quality of recorded signals. RESULTS: About 31,145 pairs of systolic blood pressure (BP-S) and 67,097 pairs of SpO(2) were investigated. Seven and a half percent of systolic blood pressure pairs had a discrepancy greater than 20 mmHg and less than one percent of the SpO2 pairs had a discrepancy greater than 10. We could not find any technical alarms from the monitors that could explain the large difference. However, SAI calculated for the waveforms associated with this group of cases was significantly larger than the SAI values calculated for the control waveform data of the same patients with small discrepancies. CONCLUSION: Charted vital signs reflect in large the raw data as reported by bedside monitors. Poor signal quality could partially explain the existence of cases of large discrepancies.

A care pathway to boost influenza vaccination rates among inpatients with acute ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack.

BACKGROUND: Although influenza-related morbidity and mortality is high, and influenza can be a trigger for recurrent stroke, only about half of stroke survivors receive yearly influenza vaccination. Identifying new avenues through which to optimize influenza vaccination among stroke survivors is a public health need. We assessed the feasibility of integrating influenza vaccination into routine inpatient stroke care. METHODS: We designed a quality improvement project incorporating influenza vaccination into care administered to hospitalized patients with ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack that included a standardized order and discharge checklist. Data were then prospectively collected on consecutively encountered patients with ischemic stroke and transient ischemic attack admitted to a university hospital stroke service during the influenza season of October 2007 to February 2008. Successful influenza treatment use was based on optimal rather than actual treatment, with credit for optimal treatment given if an acceptable reason for nonadministration of the vaccine was documented. RESULTS: Of 103 patients admitted during the study period, 75 (73%) were eligible for influenza vaccination (mean age 72.8 years; 51% women). Among vaccination-eligible patients, 65 (87%) received optimal influenza vaccination treatment, whereas 14 (21%) actually received the vaccination during hospitalization. Leading reason (90%) for suboptimal influenza vaccination treatment among eligible patients was that the vaccination was inadvertently not ordered on admission or at discharge. CONCLUSIONS: Influenza vaccination can be systematically incorporated into stroke hospitalization and may be a viable avenue for promptly enhancing short-term clinical outcomes among hospitalized patients with stroke during peak influenza season.

In-hospital initiation of secondary prevention is associated with improved vascular outcomes at 3 months.

BACKGROUND: Although various in-hospital stroke quality improvement programs have been associated with high treatment rates at hospital discharge, there are few data on the impact of these programs on clinical outcomes. We evaluated the impact of the PROTECT (Preventing Recurrence Of Thromboembolic Events through Coordinated Treatment) program on short-term vascular risk. METHODS: Prospective data collected after discharge for ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack caused by presumed atherosclerotic mechanism from a PROTECT intervention hospital and a comparison community hospital, which used conventional care, were compared. The 3-month follow-up clinical outcome data were then evaluated and differences in outcome frequency data between the two hospital groups were analyzed using Fisher's exact test. Covariate adjusted comparisons of percent with a vascular event was computed via logistic regression methods. RESULTS: A total of 224 patients met study criteria: 126 patients at a PROTECT hospital and 98 patients at a comparator hospital. The 3-month postdischarge data were available for 78 patients at PROTECT hospital versus 65 control patients. Patients at a PROTECT hospital were more likely to be younger, be current smokers, and not have a history of atrial fibrillation. At 3 months, there was a covariate-adjusted difference in the intervention-hospital group versus the control-hospital group with regard to the incidence of a vascular event (transient ischemic attack, stroke, or myocardial infarction), 8.4% versus 22% (P = .036). CONCLUSIONS: Compared with conventional care, PROTECT was associated with better 3-month vascular outcomes after stroke hospitalization. Further study is needed to confirm the potential favorable impact of stroke quality improvement programs on clinical outcomes.

In-hospital initiation of secondary stroke prevention therapies yields high rates of adherence at follow-up.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The Stroke PROTECT (Preventing Recurrence Of Thromboembolic Events through Coordinated Treatment) program systematically implements, at the time of acute transient ischemic attack (TIA) or ischemic stroke admission, 8 medication/behavioral secondary prevention measures known to improve outcome in patients with cerebrovascular disease. The objective of this study was to determine if the high utilization rates previously demonstrated at hospital discharge were maintained at 90 days after discharge. METHODS: Data were prospectively collected on consecutively encountered ischemic stroke and TIA patients admitted to a university hospital stroke service beginning September 1, 2002. PROTECT interventions were initiated before hospital discharge in all PROTECT-target (underlying stroke mechanism large vessel atherosclerosis or small vessel disease) and PROTECT-ACS (At-risk for Coronary Sequelae) patients. Adherence to program goals was assessed 3 months after discharge. RESULTS: During the period from September 2002 to August 2003, 144 individuals met criteria for PROTECT intervention. Of the 130 patients (90%) with available day 90 follow-up data, mean age was 72 (range, 37 to 95), and 63% were male. Adherence rates in patients without specific contraindications were 100% for antithrombotics, 99% for statins, 92% for angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors/angiotensin receptor blockers, and 80% for thiazides. Awareness of the importance of calling 911 in response to stroke was 87%. Adherence to diet and exercise guidelines were 78% and 70%, respectively. Of the 24 smokers, tobacco cessation was maintained in 20 (83%). CONCLUSIONS: High rates of adherence to PROTECT therapies were maintained at 90 days after hospital discharge.