Doctorate Title: Assessment of paramedics’ competence and standardized communication in suspected stroke: The Paramedic Norwegian Acute Prehospital Project.

Doctorate Description: Acute stroke treatment is time-sensitive, with early recognition and rapid transport being crucial for patient outcomes. Paramedics, often the first to encounter stroke patients, play a key role in triage but face challenges due to suboptimal assessment tools and communication barriers when consulting with hospitals. This thesis aimed to explore prehospital stroke management by training paramedics to use the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) instead of the simpler FAST test to enhance diagnostic accuracy and improve communication with stroke physicians. Both quantitative and qualitative methods were employed. While NIHSS did not significantly improve overall diagnostic accuracy, it facilitated the identification of subtler strokes and enhanced communication between paramedics and stroke physicians. The findings suggest that although NIHSS is useful for detecting less obvious strokes, the full-scale version may not be necessary for classic stroke symptoms, indicating a need for further refinement.

Status: Complete

Stroke, Quality Indicators, Telemedicine.

https://doi.org/10.2196/39444
https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(23)00237-5
https://doi.org/10.1111/ene.16252
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-022-06006-4