How to Teach Strokes to Nursing Students

Nursing students must be trained to see specific symptoms in a patient at a hospital or doctor's office. This is especially true in the case of a stroke. If a nurse cannot see the subtle clues of a stroke in a patient, brain damage or death could occur. Nursing schools must inform nurses on all the traits of a stroke so the nurse can contact help or apply aid to the stroke victim.

Things You'll Need

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Instructions

• 1

  Talk about prevention to nursing students. Nursing students will have to discuss how they can communicate to patients the ways to avoid a stroke. Lifestyle choices, such as diet, high cholesterol, smoking or stress leading to hypertension, are all major factors that can contribute to a stroke.

• 2

  Train the students that time is the most essential factor for a stroke victim. A teacher must hammer home to nursing students that they cannot quickly assess the victim's situation without the approximate time the stroke occurred or how the stroke is progressing.

• 3

  Teach the biological signs of a stroke. Before the nurse interviews the patient or loved one, the nurse should see if several symptoms are showing in the patient. Symptoms such as eye-focusing problems, difficulty speaking, vomiting and confusion are possible signs that a stroke has occurred.

• 4

  Know what questions to ask a patient or loved one. The correct questions to ask include if the patient is feeling numbness on one side of the body or if the patient is having trouble moving.

• 5

  Tell nurses to always have emergency contacts near them at all times. Ambulance, doctor or hospital numbers need to be on a nurse, whether it is in a notepad or on their computer or even on their cell phones. Teaching the student to always be connected will help them react faster to emergencies.

• 6

  Create one-on-one situations with actors playing patients. This is a great tool during medical school training. Nurses will have to assess if a patient is having a stroke, so having an actor pretend they are having a stroke helps. Also, allow the nurse to be alone with the actor-patient, that way the nurse is not being coached about what to see or notice.