FPH nurses skilled in stroke assessment and evaluation: It's no stroke of luck

Nurses and staff at Franciscan Physicians Hospital are working to benefit stroke patients in their community.

The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale is an assessment tool that provides quantitative measures of stroke-related neurological deficit.

The scale is a widely used clinical assessment tool to evaluate the acuity of stroke patients. NIHSS training and certification is available online and through mobile devices, says the National Stroke Association.

Denise Doolin, clinical coordinator at FPH, notes that before the certification is given, the nurse must complete the NIHSS evaluation on six patients with 93 percent accuracy.
"Completion of the NIH certification process means that one has successfully accomplished the training to perform all NIHSS evaluations," says Doolin.

She adds that having certified staff benefits patients who exhibit signs of acute stroke by allowing accurate and consistent evaluation and that it is an assessment tool used for patients who are undergoing carotid angiography or carotid stenting procedures.

Training for nurses has already begun at Franciscan Physicians Hospital. Although the hospital generally sees a low volume of stroke patients, NIHSS certification is required from house supervisors, charge nurses, cath lab RN's and intensive care unit RN's, adds Doolin.