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Today we had an Online Meeting uniting Nepal’s stroke community. Why online? Because it was not only the stroke experts from Kathmandu, namely the Nepal Stroke Association – but also stroke team leaders from different hospitals in different areas of Nepal. But hopefully we’ll repeat that meeting in live soon.
Nothing is more important than bringing all stroke team leaders on one (virtual) table and share their experiences on stroke care. And first and foremost: How encouraging it is to see Nepal’s stroke community growing so quickly!
The topic of this meeting was to develop ideas about the best concept for trainings and for quality monitoring. Though we all know that the biggest obstacle in stroke care is the unavailability or unaffordability of thrombolysis, Dr Ashim Subedi highlighted that the “spirit” has changed enormously in the last months. While stroke care was a disease known only from books, treating a stroke has now become reality in Manipal Hospital.
While the doctors have received intensive trainings and gained much confidence in stroke care, we all had to acknowledge that we didn’t pay as much attention to the nurses as they deserve. Nurses are the backbone of stroke care – and tbh: a dedicated stroke nurse is much more important than any of us doctors. So the next training sessions will be for nurses only – still, they always have to be part of the team workshops.
Next point to discuss was Quality Monitoring: Each country and each hospital is different. And so we need methods which meet each hospital’s needs. Looking at those places who already have started, we’ll “copy” Dr Pankaj’s printed version assessing the most relevant key performance indicators. And in the long-term, what we need is a mobile-based solution.
We’ve had many meetings, with national and international experts, in the last years – but today’s meeting was for sure the most important. Having those people who see and treat stroke patients every day – and learning from their experience is crucial for all of us. And let’s keep this platform of communication and knowledge exchange running =)
