Deans' stroke musings: The Time Use and Activity Levels of Inpatients in a Co-located Acute and Rehabilitation Stroke Unit: An Observational Study

Changing stroke rehab and research worldwide now.Time is Brain! trillions and trillions of neurons that DIE each day because there are NO effective hyperacute therapies besides tPA(only 12% effective). I have 523 posts on hyperacute therapy, enough for researchers to spend decades proving them out. These are my personal ideas and blog on stroke rehabilitation and stroke research. Do not attempt any of these without checking with your medical provider. Unless you join me in agitating, when you need these therapies they won't be there.

What this blog is for:

My blog is not to help survivors recover, it is to have the 10 million yearly stroke survivors light fires underneath their doctors, stroke hospitals and stroke researchers to get stroke solved. 100% recovery. The stroke medical world is completely failing at that goal, they don't even have it as a goal. Shortly after getting out of the hospital and getting NO information on the process or protocols of stroke rehabilitation and recovery I started searching on the internet and found that no other survivor received useful information. This is an attempt to cover all stroke rehabilitation information that should be readily available to survivors so they can talk with informed knowledge to their medical staff. It lays out what needs to be done to get stroke survivors closer to 100% recovery. It's quite disgusting that this information is not available from every stroke association and doctors group.

Monday, November 28, 2011

The Time Use and Activity Levels of Inpatients in a Co-located Acute and Rehabilitation Stroke Unit: An Observational Study

Blindingly obvious. I wonder if they will give therapies for dead brain to cover the wasted time(imagery, mirror, passive, observational).
http://thomasland.metapress.com/content/d03p0x35023n7434/

Abstract

Purpose: Stroke patients spend a large proportion of their day alone and inactive. In one rehabilitation unit, practice changes had been implemented over several years to improve patient activity levels and practice, yet measures of patient activity had not been recorded. The aim of this study was to obtain baseline measures of the time use and activity levels of inpatients in that co-located acute and rehabilitation stroke unit. Methods: A quantitative observational design was used. The behavior of 11 inpatients was mapped at 15-minute intervals over 4 days between 7 am and 7 pm. Observations were recorded across 7 categories, including physical activity, location and person(s) present, and 42 possible subcategories. Thirteen allied health and nursing professionals were trained to record these observations and interrater reliability was examined. Frequencies, cross-tabulations, and t tests were used for data analysis. Results: Stroke patients spent a large proportion of the day in their bedroom, engaged in solitary behavior and being inactive (76%, 44% and 62% of observed time, respectively). Patients spent 11% of their weekday with an allied health or nursing professional. Good interrater agreement was achieved between raters for 41 of the 42 observational categories. Conclusions: These data provide a baseline for comparison following implementation of more practice change. A trained team of health professionals was able to reliably collect data.