Nurse’s Action Towards Stroke Awareness and Prevention: A Case Study

 Gabrielle Artz, Verrazzano Class of 2024, completed major in Nursing 

These past four years in the nursing program taught me so much and has helped shape the person I am today. I feel like for most students who have to complete a thesis or a capstone project, they will say that it crept up on them very quickly. I am one of those students.

Throughout my time in the nursing program I was able to figure out what I was interested in perusing and what areas I was not too fond of. My main interest is in neurological critical care, and I focused on that area for my capstone project.

I was inspired by both the Medical Surgical Nursing III course and my experience as a volunteer on the Neurology Stroke unit at a local hospital on Staten Island. I have had the privilege to work with Professor Regina Lama for this project. She has an immense amount of knowledge to contribute, and she guided me through this project, as she was a neuro critical care nurse. She also taught the course that sparked my inspiration for this project.

While volunteering on the stroke unit I heard of many cases where patients suffered from ischemic stroke who could have received treatments but did not receive the medications because the patient did not seek treatment in enough time.

I struggled trying to organize all of the points that I wanted to touch upon in my project. Professor Lama guided me to speak to people working on the stroke unit to learn more about the protocols. I did just that, and spoke with a staff nurse and the nurse manager on the unit, where they provided me with teaching handouts and the protocols they follow when they are treating a patient in the hospital.

Further reflecting on this capstone project, I gained so much knowledge in wanting to spread more awareness of stroke in the community. I was so grateful to be able to work with Professor Lama, who also teaches the nursing course 411, Community Nursing. I am proud to have been able to create a case study and analysis to provide stroke awareness and work towards preventing this life threatening event. To say the least, it has been a journey and I do not take this experience for granted.