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Hutt’s stroke clinical nurse specialist Olivia Browne says she is fortunate in being able to work with stroke patients from acute admission right through to discharge from rehabilitation.

Browne says she can follow patients throughout their inpatient stay as at Hutt both the DHB’s acute stroke and rehabilitation units are in the same hospital building. The fact that Hutt is a medium-sized hospital  – with around 220 strokes a year –  also helps her to provide some continuity of patient care.

She says it is great if a CNS can cover a patient from admission to discharge but acknowledges this is more difficult for CNS colleagues in DHBs with acute and rehabilitation services on different campuses or in big DHBs, like Canterbury, with much higher numbers of acute stroke patients.

Browne says she sees the CNS role as working with the patient as well as their family  “as stroke doesn’t just affect one person, it has a ripple effect” – including a lot of education on stroke. She liaises with the greater stroke team and family to work towards discharge and on discharge can act as a link if there are concerns in the home environment.

Meanwhile, her role in a patient’s journey can begin with a page alerting her of the arrival of a patient needing assessment for thrombolysis and at the other end she is working on setting up CNS clinics for post-discharge follow-up. (As the unit’s only CNS she wants to ensure thrombolysis services are not over-reliant on her so she has trained the emergency department and intensive care nurses in thrombolysis. Hutt’s most recent six-month audit showed a thrombolysis rate of 12 per cent – double the recommended indicator of 6 per cent.)

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