This assignment is going to look at the following policy Stroke Diagnosis and initial management of acute stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA) (National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE), 2008) and then analyse the impact that this policy has on healthcare delivery

The patient to fall in line with the Nursing Midwifery Council’s (NMC) (2008) The Code, will be referred to as “David” he is a forty nine year old gentleman who lives at home with his wife he has had a stroke recently and is recovering well, he has a slight stutter since the stroke along with his balance being effected and he has some numbness in his limbs in the left hand side of his body. He is an ex smoker, and a social drinker which can have had a contributory factor on his stroke, along with the fact he has type two diabetes and is clinically obese.

The Nice guideline regarding stroke diagnosis (2008), strokes can be attributed to 56, 000 deaths in the United Kingdom (UK) and Wales in 1999 (Stephens et al. 2004).  This also has a financial impact on the National Health Service (NHS) costing around seven billion pound per year (National Audit Office (NAO), 2005)

To conclude although the policy is working and has helped David there are improvements to be made and as it was due for review in April 2012 according to the policy (NICE, 2008) itself when it is updated there will be improvement that will further help the patients. Some of the improvements could be encourage communication in the acute setting to help educate staff to the best evidence based practice as soon as possible to ensure that staff have the best information at all times when making care decisions.

References

Bullock, H,. Mountford, J,. Stanley, R. (2002). Better policy-making. London: Centre for Management and Policy Studies.

National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence. (2008). Stroke Diagnosis and initial management of acute stroke and transient ischaemic attack (TIA). London: NICE.

National Audit Office. (2005). Reducing brain damage: faster access to better stroke care. London: NAO.

Nursing and Midwifery Council. (2008), The Code: Standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives. Portland Place, London: NMC.

Stevens, A., Raftery, J., Mant, J. et al. (eds), (2004). Health care needs assessment: the epidemiologically based needs assessment review. 2nd ed. Oxford: Radcliffe Medical Press.

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