What is it about?
Stroke is quite prevalent worldwide. Many stroke patients may suffer weaknesses or paralysis in their arms or legs after the occurrence of the condition. Other may also incur limited ability to speak, process information or even respond to their environment. With this in mind, we can undoubtedly conclude that many stroke patients would require continuous rehabilitation to support their recovery and optimum regain of the lost functions and subsequently increased independence. The current research publication provides the details on how a team of Ghana are providing a rehabilitation program via video calls to stroke patients. The nurses are able to demonstrate various physical therapies, teach patient on cognitive improvement activities, modifying their lifestyle to decrease risk of stroke recurrence and providing emotional support.
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Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash
Why is it important?
The program is significant for a number of reasons. 1. A large proportion of stroke patients may not have quality access to rehabilitation services. This is due to limited numbers of rehab centers, high cost of care and inadequate number of healthcare workers. 2. The approach supports the changing dynamics in technology accessibility. The Ghanaian population is gravitating heavily towards the use of smartphones. It is therefore the right time to incorporate this shift into providing accessible and affordable healthcare. 3. Ghanaian nurses could be a strong force to support stroke rehabilitation in the country.
Perspectives
My team and I are more than share our current work to the many nurses seeking to improve accessibility to stroke rehabilitation services in their communities. We worked tirelessly to get the protocol out as we wanted to spell out all the details. We are also excited about the conversations this article could lead to as far as involvement of nurses in providing quality stroke rehabilitation is concerned.
Stephanopoulos Osei
University of Ghana
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Nurse-led telerehabilitation intervention to improve stroke efficacy: Protocol for a pilot randomized feasibility trial, PLoS ONE, June 2023, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0280973.
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