Cerebrovascular Accidents: A Case Study

With an increasing number of patients presenting to the Emergency Department the time of door to TPA is becoming less and it is becoming more important for health care providers to recognize the signs of a stroke. According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) (2017) every 40 seconds someone in the United States has a stroke and every four minutes someone in the United States dies from a stroke. These numbers account for more than 795,000 strokes in the United States per year (Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention, 2017). Cerebrovascular accidents (CVA) are the second leading cause of death in the world and the first leading cause of permanent disability in adults (Santos, J., Melo, E., Silveira Junior, J., Vasconcelos,

1765). Lastly, the study showed that out of the 16 nurses surveyed 15 reported an increased knowledge of the NIHSS scale and CVA’s (Santos et al., 2017, p.

(2015, September 1). Clinical policy: Use of intravenous tissue plasminogen activator for the management of acute ischemic stroke in the emergency department. Retrieved April 29, 2018, from https://www.guideline.gov/summaries/summary/49538/clinical-policy-use-of-intravenous-tissue-plasminogen-activator-for-the-management-of-acute-ischemic-stroke-in-the-emergency-department?q=alteplase

Division for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention. (2017, September 01). Retrieved April 29,

2018, from https://www.cdc.gov/dhdsp/data_statistics/fact_sheets/fs_stroke.htm

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