Nurses' awareness of the psychological needs of patients following cerebrovascular accident

Abstract

This study aimed to investigate nurses' awareness of the psychological needs of patients following cerebrovascular accident (CVA/stroke). The objectives of the study also included an exploration of nurses' knowledge of the psychological changes usually occurring in stroke patients in the acute phase of the illness and an evaluation of nurses' awareness of their role in providing psychological care to the same group of patients. A non-experimental, simple descriptive research design was used to fulfil these objectives. Fifteen nurses working on a medical setting in a Maltese General Hospital were conveniently selected. A semi-structured questionnaire was personally administered to the respondents and a 100% response rate was achieved. Although there is a plethora of nursing literature on the care of stroke patients, very few studies with similar objectives of this study are available. All participants were aware that cerebrovascular accident affects the patients' well being. However, the impact of the illness on the social aspect was underestimated. Nurses were able to describe what cognitive and emotional changes stroke patients might experience but under mentioned the behavioural changes. When asked about stroke patients' psychological needs, the informational need was highly undervalued. Nurses in this study commented that the psychological needs of stroke patients were not always being met. The attributed reasons for this included excessive workload and lack of staff and time, lack of discussion with the patients, inappropriate ward environment and lack of adequate staff preparation. It is recommended that measures to eliminate the mentioned culprits be implemented together with suggestions for further research studies on the subject.