Raising stroke awareness among rural dwellers with a Facts for Action to Stroke Treatment-based educational program.

Stroke is the third leading cause of death in the United States with 780,000 new and/or recurrent strokes each year. Interventions aimed at the onset of stroke symptoms have been successful in decreasing long-term neurological deficits; however, providing the prompt medical interventions in rural areas involves unique challenges. To decrease time-to-treatment in rural areas, education about symptoms of stroke and the need for immediate medical attention are critical. The objective of this study was to measure the effectiveness of the Facts for Action to Stroke Treatment (FAST)-based educational intervention program focused on the improving knowledge about stroke of 402 rural-dwelling adults. Using a paired means t test, the participants had a significant increase in knowledge from pretest to posttest (p = .000). Of those, 215 subjects participated in 2-month follow-up testing with the paired t test showing that the increased score from pretest to 2-month follow-up remained significant (p = .000). The authors concluded that the FAST-based program was an effective tool to use when teaching recognition of stroke symptoms and the need for immediate medical intervention to rural adults.

A call for replication.

PURPOSE: To promote the use of replication as a means for strengthening knowledge for nursing practice. METHODS: Examination of two clinical examples of how replication could strengthen nursing practice. FINDINGS: The first example had no research evidence to support the practice and the other was based on the findings of a single medical study. Both led to nursing practices that were not effective or efficient, although not harmful. Replication can be used to overcome design limitations, increase validity of findings, and bring about correction of error. In addition, potential barriers and solutions to increase replication were identified. CONCLUSIONS: Replication is a critical step in validating research to build evidence and to promote use of findings in practice.