16 October 2023

The efforts of nurses assisting a stroke study aimed at improving patient mobility have been applauded. 

Clinical practitioner Teena Kunnath said the nurses on Frimley Park's G3 ward have played a key role helping the AVERT DOSE study, which hopes to provide a better recovery and quality of life for stroke victims through an early implementation of specific mobility training. 

A variety of mobility sessions provided by physiotherapists and nurses are monitored as part of the trial, all taking into account the abilities of individual patients, providing pages of daily data. 

“Physios have been very proactive in screening and bringing patients into the trial,” said Teena. “Then the work the nurses are doing is making sure the study is such a success. 

“The fact is that they are doing it so well. This is the first time we have had such a team of physios, health care assistants and nurses collaborating like this, supported by the ward sisters, matron and practice development nurses. We’re very grateful for their help.” 

It is thought this is the first study run in the Trust with a physio, Bryony Skelton, as the principal investigator.  

 “It has been a really exciting and positive experience having physio-led research happening, and it’s promoted good team-working between the nursing and therapy teams, which has been great,” she said. 

“The trial has also caused us to think about what we are doing with other patients on the ward and has led to some changes, including trying to promote more of a ‘rehab ethos’. We’ve also become more aware of the research that informed the AVERT DOSE trial, and this has caused us to change how we are doing our physio sessions with stroke patients in the first 24 hours after their stroke.” 

The trial opened in December last year at Frimley, and the team are currently the highest recruiters to the study in the UK. 

“We’re very thankful for the support and input from the research team in helping us set up and run the trial,” added Bryony.