As part of this campaign, the Delaware nurses are encouraging RNs to organize screenings in community settings, such as churches and senior citizen centers. They also envision it being incorporated into nursing school curriculums and becoming an important part of patient discharge teaching. Nurse practitioners currently are piloting the screening in their primary care offices. Barker hopes the tool will help standardize the way data on stroke is collected and that information from group screenings will be useful in assessing the health needs of communities throughout the country. And in time, she hopes the tool will demonstrate the impact nurses' stroke prevention efforts have had on the health of individuals and communities.
Barker is on a mission to mobilize RNs nationwide.
Another plan is under way to take the tool national through a March 29 press conference at the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses convention and through the Internet, compliments of the Delaware Stroke Initiative Web site. They also want to recruit nurses to organize events for May 6, the first day of National Nurses Week. The work of Barker and DNA research division members already has received recognition. It is imperative that we get the word out about the need for immediate diagnosis and treatment for all types of stroke, and I commend Delaware nurses for taking the lead in spreading this message. The ANA Board of Directors also threw its support behind the DNA stroke screening program at its March meeting.