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“Better wear out sheets than shoes” A Survey of 202 Stroke Professionals´ Early Mobilisation Practices and Concerns

Monica Skarin1, Julie Bernhardt2, Anna Sjo¨ holm1, Michael Nilsson1, and Thomas Linden1

Background Stroke unit care improves the outcome for patients.

One component responsible for this may be that

patients are mobilised earlier and more intensively. An ongoing

randomised controlled trial is investigating the potential

benefits of early mobilisation, but currently there is

limited evidence for the practice. Therefore, current practices

may be driven by historical precedent and/or clinical opinion,

and varying approaches to mobilisation are likely. This study

aims to examine different health professionals’ concerns

regarding early mobilisation in acute stroke. In this study,

early mobilisation was defined as frequent out of bed activities

within the first 24 h after stroke onset.

Methods A nine-item anonymous questionnaire exploring

benefits and harms with early mobilisation after stroke was

used during interviews of stroke care professionals attending

the annual Australasian stroke conference in 2008.

Results The survey was completed by 202 professionals,

representing 38% of all conference attendees. 65% were

females, 50% under 40-years old, 46% worked in acute stroke

and 31% in rehabilitation. Thirty-five percent were nurses,

26% medical doctors, 19% physiotherapists and 12% occupational

therapists. Two-thirds had o10-years experience with

stroke. Sixty percent of the surveyed professionals had concerns

about early mobilisation and there were significantly

more professionals concerned about early mobilisation for

haemorrhagic (59%) than ischaemic (23%) stroke patients.

Conclusion Our study shows that most clinicians had concerns

in relation to early mobilisation of stroke patients and

more clinicians had concerns for haemorrhagic than for

ischaemic stroke. The evidence underlying these concerns is

shallow.

Article Source: warning signs of a stroke To find out how it's done, please visit http://www.sooperarticles.com/health-fitness-articles/stroke-articles/warning-signs-stroke-1084606.html