The guidelines provided in Chapter 4: (Acute medical & surgical management) of the National Stroke Foundation's Clinical Guidelines (2010) are useful to clinicians. However, it is crucial to note that there are few points in the guidelines that make it not entirely useful to clinicians using it. One of the issues with the guidelines is that it focuses on the patients who have visited a health facility or are frequent visitors to a health facility (Chapter 4).
Screening helps identify early signs of stroke that is critical in its prevention and management. However, the guidelines will not be useful if a patient does not go to a heath facility on a regular basis. The guidelines only apply to those who go for screening and give the clinician a chance to examine and identify risk factors (Deshpande 2008, p. 45). The guidelines do not provide guidance to clinicians who are not well trained von different management strategies of stroke in patients who suffers sudden attacks and cannot easily access a health facility with ell trained personnel. The clinician will not be in a position to apply all these guidelines if he or she does not have sufficient training on management and identification of stroke signs in a patient (Warlow 2008, p. 76).
The results used in developing the guidelines are not conclusive meaning that there are cases where the guidelines may not be applicable. It is common to find that the results were not conclusive or the selected sample did not provide a merging response to the treatment. It therefore, leaves the clinician at a point where he or she has to make a decision regarding the choice of treatment that is best applicable to the situation facing him or her (Tabloski 2010, p. 90).
References
Chapter 4 of National Stroke Foundation's Clinical Guidelines (2010)
Deshpande, A 2008, Telehealth for acute stroke management (Telestroke) systematic review and environmental scan, Ottawa, Ont: Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health.
Tabloski, P A 2010, Gerontological nursing (2nd ed,), Pearson, Upper Saddle River, NJ.
Warlow, C 2008, Stroke: practical management (3rd ed,), Blackwell Pub., Malden, Mass.
