Date of Conferral

6-13-2025

Degree

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP)

School

Nursing

Advisor

Corinne Romano

Abstract

This doctoral project aimed to develop clinical practice guidelines (CPG) to strengthen the assessment of poststroke patients for rehabilitation. The project sought to adopt an evidence-based approach to develop standardized recommendations that can help in the timely and appropriate rehabilitation of stroke survivors, thereby reducing the risk of long-term disability and readmissions. Stroke is a significant cause of disability and poor functional recovery, increased healthcare costs, and lower quality of life for patients occur because of poor rehabilitation assessment. While rehabilitation protocols already exist, discrepancies in patient evaluations result in intervention delays and ineffective uptake of rehabilitation programs, limiting the chances of recovery for patients. Standardizing rehabilitation assessment criteria can help in timely and targeted interventions that can maximize patient outcomes while at the same time promoting efficient use of healthcare resources. The CPG contains evidence-based criteria for assessment of poststroke rehabilitation to ensure that all eligible patients receive timely and appropriate rehabilitation interventions. This project utilized the AGREE II instrument to evaluate the quality and rigor of the guideline and ascertain that it met established standards of reliability and applicability. Overall, experts strongly agreed that the guideline was valid and applicable, particularly in terms of its scope, involvement of stakeholders, and recommendations. Nevertheless, methodology transparency and implementation strategies were minor concerns. The CPG has significant implications for nursing practice, including standardization of poststroke rehabilitation assessment, better collaboration between the interdisciplinary team, timely referral for rehabilitation and reduction in hospital readmissions, healthcare cost savings, and better patient outcomes.

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