Date of this Version

7-9-2021

Document Type

DNP Project

Abstract

Background: According to the Center of Disease Control, stroke accounted for 1 in every 6 cardiovascular-related deaths in the U.S in 2018. This disease is the leading cause of long-term disability and limits mobility in more than half of people who survive stroke older than 65 (Centers for Disease Control and Disease Prevention [CDC], 2020). Due to the difficulty of a full recovery for cerebral vascular accidents, stroke prevention is the top priority in the approach to reduce the mortality and morbidity of the disease. Antiplatelet platelet therapy has been proven to reduce the incidence and complications of an ischemic stroke.

Context: A South Florida Hospital is less than excellent in initiating antiplatelet therapy for patients suspected of ischemic stroke. An educational intervention should be provided to healthcare providers to increase compliance to antiplatelet therapy for stroke patients.

Purpose: The objective of the quality improvement project is to improve healthcare providers’ knowledge and compliance towards initiating antiplatelet therapy for patients admitted to the hospital with stroke symptoms.

Methods: A sample of 13 healthcare providers was provided with a link from the medical director of an acute care hospital in South Florida via email. The link included the pre-test survey, education intervention PowerPoint, and post-test survey. The pre-and post- test measure of knowledge and practice habits related to treating patients with ischemic stroke.

Results: There was an 8.9% improvement in scores on the knowledge-based questions in the post-test. Regarding the questions based on practice habits, post-test scores showed a 2% increase when compared to similar pre-test questions.

Conclusions: Therefore, it was proven that the education intervention could improve the knowledge of healthcare providers related to increasing compliance for prescribing antiplatelet therapy for patients with stroke symptoms within 48 hours upon arrival to the hospital.

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