Dr Morrison and Charge Nurse Bond work in the stroke unit of the hospital and receive monthly reports from the Scottish Stroke Care Audit to update them on performance against nationally agreed standards for stroke care. (See the Clinical standards and Clinical audit topic loops at the bottom of the page for further information.)
When they received the monthly report in March they were disappointed as they felt that the data presented did not reflect their performance in relation to swallow screening of the patients in their ward.
They raised this matter at the outset of their review with the Action Plan and SSCA Coordinators. They said that all stroke patients have a swallow screen when they are admitted to the stroke unit as per the guidelines and that the nurses know it should be clearly documented in the patients’ records.
The Action Plan and SSCA Coordinators explained that the national standards and criteria for swallow screening stipulates that swallow screening should be performed on day of admission not the day the patient was admitted to the stroke unit. Therefore if patients don’t come to the stroke unit until the day following admission they should have their swallow screen done in the medical receiving unit (or other medical ward) and this should be clearly documented.
Charge Nurse Bond said she had not been aware that this was the case and decided to look at the national standards & criteria and the research / evidence behind this. She refers to the following:
Topic Loops:
Page last reviewed: 11 Aug 2022
