| “Better wear out sheets than shoes” A Survey of 202 Stroke Professionals´ Early Mobilisation Practices and Concerns |
Monica Skarin1, Julie Bernhardt2, Anna Sjo¨ holm1, Michael Nilsson1, and Thomas Linden1
Background Stroke unit care improves the outcome for patients.
One component responsible for this may be that
patients are mobilised earlier and more intensively. An ongoing
randomised controlled trial is investigating the potential
benefits of early mobilisation, but currently there is
limited evidence for the practice. Therefore, current practices
may be driven by historical precedent and/or clinical opinion,
and varying approaches to mobilisation are likely. This study
aims to examine different health professionals’ concerns
regarding early mobilisation in acute stroke. In this study,
early mobilisation was defined as frequent out of bed activities
within the first 24 h after stroke onset.
Methods A nine-item anonymous questionnaire exploring
benefits and harms with early mobilisation after stroke was
used during interviews of stroke care professionals attending
the annual Australasian stroke conference in 2008.
Results The survey was completed by 202 professionals,
representing 38% of all conference attendees. 65% were
females, 50% under 40-years old, 46% worked in acute stroke
and 31% in rehabilitation. Thirty-five percent were nurses,
26% medical doctors, 19% physiotherapists and 12% occupational
therapists. Two-thirds had o10-years experience with
stroke. Sixty percent of the surveyed professionals had concerns
about early mobilisation and there were significantly
more professionals concerned about early mobilisation for
haemorrhagic (59%) than ischaemic (23%) stroke patients.
Conclusion Our study shows that most clinicians had concerns
in relation to early mobilisation of stroke patients and
more clinicians had concerns for haemorrhagic than for
ischaemic stroke. The evidence underlying these concerns is
shallow.
