Abstract
BackgroundEmergency medical services (EMS) play a vital role in expediting hospital arrival in stroke patients. The objective of our study was to assess the level of awareness regarding pre-hospital identification and management of acute stroke among EMS Staff in Dubai and to evaluate the impact of an educational lecture on their knowledge.MethodsOurs was a cross-sectional study with a pre-test and post-test design. The intervention was an educational lecture, based on the updated guidelines in pre-hospital care of acute stroke. Participants were assessed before and after the intervention on various aspects of stroke care. Paired t test were used to compare the impact of the intervention.ResultsA total of 274 EMS workers participated in our study. The baseline knowledge of participants regarding stroke types was inadequate with only 68% correctly identifying these. 79% were able to name the cardinal stroke symptoms. Knowledge of stroke mimics was poor with only 6.6% identifying stroke mimics correctly. With respect to management, most participants were unable to correctly identify the points to illicit in the history of an acute stroke patient (25.2%) and also the steps in pre-hospital management (40%). All these aspects showed remarkable improvement post intervention.ConclusionThe baseline awareness of most aspects of acute stroke identification and management was poor in our EMS participants. Our educational lecture proved effective in improving this knowledge when tested immediately post intervention. However, there is a need to re-assess this at periodic intervals to identify the need for refresher courses on pre-hospital stroke management.
Highlights
Emergency medical services (EMS) play a vital role in expediting hospital arrival in stroke patients
Prevalence data for stroke is not yet available from the country, a health statistic done by the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) in 2014 identified circulatory disorders as the leading cause of mortality amounting to 37% of all causes [5]
Our results demonstrate that the baseline knowledge of our EMS staff with regard to most aspects of acute stroke identification and management needs improvement
Summary
Emergency medical services (EMS) play a vital role in expediting hospital arrival in stroke patients. Stroke is a common neurological disorder and the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. According to the Global burden of disease study, in 2013 there were 6.5 million deaths from stroke, 25.7 million stroke survivors and 10.3 million new strokes globally [1]. This burden is expected to rise in future with cerebrovascular disease expected to become the fourth commonest cause of ongoing disease burden worldwide by the year 2020 [2]. Prevalence data for stroke is not yet available from the country, a health statistic done by the Health Authority of Abu Dhabi (HAAD) in 2014 identified circulatory disorders (stroke and ischemic heart disease) as the leading cause of mortality amounting to 37% of all causes [5]
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