Stroke Coordinators' Perspectives on Sustaining Use of Fever, Sugar (Hyperglycaemia) and Swallow (FeSS) Protocols. Process Evaluation Using a Sustainability Framework.
Kelly Coughlan, Oyebola Fasugba, Simeon Dale and 4 others
PMID 40762398WHAT IT FOUND
Stroke coordinators said sustained use of fever, high sugar and swallowing protocols depended on maintaining local pathways, relationships with emergency, speech pathology and doctors, and management support for stroke care.
Key findings
01Stroke Coordinators described maintaining FeSS use through local documents, education and communicating audit results.
02Stroke Coordinators reported speech pathology relationships as supportive and weak medical reinforcement as a barrier to sustained FeSS use.
03A dedicated stroke unit and management recognition of stroke nursing expertise were described as supporting sustainment.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study reports clinician perceptions and implementation themes, not patient outcomes or tested effects. Participants were mostly nurses and selected for a stroke leadership role, so other disciplines and staff without that role may be underrepresented. Hospitals were purposively selected from extremes of FeSS adherence, so findings may not apply to typical hospitals. Coding was done by one researcher with team consensus, which may influence theme development.
Declared interests
Corresponding author and co-authors S.M., D.A.C., S.D., K.C., E.M. and O.F. are investigators for the QASC Research Program (NHMRC Project Grant 1199964).
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as evidence that Stroke Coordinator strategies, stroke units or speech pathology relationships caused better patient swallowing outcomes. The study reports perceptions from 14 clinician interviews and does not test patient outcomes.