Retention of Stroke Education Provided during Hospitalization: Does Provision of Required Education Increase Stroke Knowledge?

• Published in: Interventional neurology 2018-10, Vol.7 (6), p.471-478
• Main Authors: Johnson, Brenda, Handler, Diane, Urrutia, Victor, Alexandrov, Anne W.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: The Stroke Clinician – Original Paper
• ISSN: 1664-9737; 1664-5545
• DOI: 10.1159/000488884

Background: Provision of stroke education to patients is a Centers for Medicare/Medicaid (CMS) requirement. However, little is known about retention of the educational content. Methods: Two pilot studies were conducted: Pilot A delivered CMS-required stroke education during hospitalization in a standardized manner and tested knowledge retention in patients returning to the Stroke Clinic for 1-month follow-up; Pilot B randomized patients to either a control group with standardized education or a test-enhanced learning group (target), with measurement of stroke knowledge retention at hospital discharge. Results: A total of 198 patients/caregivers participated in Pilot A, with only 25% scoring 100% correct on required stroke education items. The question most commonly answered incorrectly (n = 117; 59%) was “personal risk factors for stroke,” and 74 (37%) could not correctly identify stroke signs and symptoms. Pilot B found that significantly more target group patients could identify their personal stroke risk factors (100 vs. 67%; p = 0.04) and the purpose of their secondary prevention medications (87 vs. 40%; p = 0.02) compared to controls. Discussion: While stroke education is required during hospitalization, its ability to produce retention may be poor. We propose study of test-enhanced learning methods through the Targeted Education in Stroke Trial (TEST) to examine the effect of novel teaching methods on patient/caregiver knowledge retention.