Purpose
Evidence
for post-stroke fatigue management is limited. We aimed to explore how
Australian health professionals assess and assist fatigue management.
Our objectives were to identify fatigue assessment tools and
interventions used, explore clinician’s confidence managing fatigue and
explore whether management of post-stroke fatigue differs from
management of fatigue related to other conditions.
Materials and methods
An online cross-sectional survey was completed by Australian health professionals (n = 60)
providing services to people with fatigue. Analysis of open-ended
questions identified common interventions and descriptive statistics
were calculated for closed and dichotomized questions.
Results
Routine use of formal fatigue assessment tools was low (17%, n = 10).
Most respondents reporting use of the Fatigue Impact Scale, Fatigue
Assessment Scale and Fatigue Severity Scale. To address fatigue,
respondents reported providing energy optimization strategies,
education, and exercise interventions in clinical practice. Less
frequently reported interventions were strategies to adapt tasks, sleep
hygiene, psychology, nutrition, and pharmacology interventions.
Respondents were “moderately” confident managing post-stroke fatigue.
Respondents did not report differences between how they manage
post-stroke fatigue and fatigue present in other conditions.
Conclusions
Few
Australian health professionals formally assess post-stroke fatigue.
Management is multidisciplinary and based on evidence from fatigue
management in other conditions.
Implications for rehabilitation
Most
health professionals are not routinely using formal assessment tools
for fatigue, possibly due to a lack of consensus on best practice in
research.(Assessments do fucking NOTHING for getting survivors recovered.)
Common strategies recommended by health professionals include energy optimisation strategies, education and exercise.
Comprehensive guidelines(NO, we need EXACT PROTOCOLS; guidelines are worthless!) for post-stroke fatigue management are yet to be established.
Health
professionals should assess post-stroke fatigue using a validated tool
to ensure an individualised approach to management based on the current
available clinical guidelines.
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