Neurological nursing explores the mysteries of the brain

Neurological nursing is a fancy, highly specialized nursing specialty that’s always evolving.

In recent years, scientists have found that early and sometimes aggressive treatment of stroke and traumatic brain injury may also help preserve function and independence for a lot of patients who up to now had no alternative but to live with debilitating disabilities. Anna Ver Hage, RN “The guidelines have started to actually remove clots from the large vessels, rather than saying there’s not much that can be done after a stroke,” said Anna Ver Hage, MSN, RN, AGACNP-BC, CNRN, a speaker for the Relias Neuroscience Nursing Certification Review, which prepares nurses for the exam. enabling you to acquire the Certified Neurosciences Registered Nurse (CNRN) certificate. And today, increasingly patients are candidates for advanced treatment. In January 2018, the journal published updated guidelines for the management of acute stroke Stroke beneficial extending the endovascular mechanical thrombectomy schedule from the 2013 guideline suggestion of 6 hours after stroke to 24 hours after stroke onset in some patients. Advances within the treatment of traumatic brain injuries include using recent drugs to stimulate and wake patients, which in some cases significantly improves outcomes. And technology is changing rapidly. Today’s MRIs are capable of image specific areas of the brain.

“Seeing what damage has been done and what the future prognosis is is a huge help in the acute phase,” said Ver Hage, a stroke nurse who works at Banner Desert Medical Center in Mesa, Arizona.

Years ago, nurses shared with patients and families what staff thought may need happened. “With advanced imaging, we can give them a much better idea of ​​what to expect and what rehabilitation will be needed in the future,” she said.

Neurological nursing stands out from other specialties in that for a lot of patients, the diagnoses are life-changing. Care goes beyond saving lives and might include helping people get back to where they were before an injury, stroke or brain tumor, said Tracey Anderson, CNRN, FNP-BC, ACNP-BC, a neurosurgical nurse practitioner in a personal practice that covers 4 hospitals in Southern California. “It’s kind of guiding them through the entire journey — whether it’s getting back to wellness or making the most of the time they have left,” said Anderson, who serves on the American Board of Neuroscience Nursing’s certification committee.

Neurological nursing is in demand

According to Ver Hage, the demand for neurological nursing is increasing because the population ages. “We are treating neurological diseases and injuries more aggressively than we used to, and I think that has significantly increased the number of nurses we need with neurology expertise,” Anderson said.

“Many nurses feel uncomfortable with neuro because they simply don’t feel they know how to assess a patient. They are afraid of missing something and ultimately avoiding it,” she said. “They deal with everything but neuro. It’s a specialty where you either love it or hate it. There is not much of a silver bullet, and the people who love it never leave.”

Many hospitals and health systems are achieving higher levels of stroke care, becoming primary stroke centers, comprehensive stroke centers and more, making a need for more experienced and specialized staff. “There’s a lot of pressure in these hospitals to have their nurses certified,” Ver Hage said. “It’s great because you can’t run a specialized center without specialized nurses.” Focusing on physician expertise and hiring a neurologist or vascular surgeon is one thing. According to Ver Hage, it’s one thing to give attention to a nurse’s specialty because a vascular surgeon or neurosurgeon isn’t on the patient’s bedside and assessing patients 24 hours a day, as nurses do. But learning this specialty isn’t easy. According to Ver Hage, that is something that nurses normally recover from.

“Neurologic nursing is not a field that you necessarily spend a lot of time in school on, so your training doesn’t really focus on treating these patients,” she said.

Expertise comes from training and education

Learning concerning the intricacies of the brain and the way injuries to different parts of the brain cause very different symptoms and disabilities is a fancy process. This isn’t like assessing a broken bone, where healing time and functional outcomes might be quite obvious. “This is not the case with brain injuries,” Ver Have said. “It’s very specific and very difficult to learn without a lot of training and a lot of experience.” According to Ver Hage, that is where certifications and specific continuing education come into play. “Certified nurses have received training and interact with these patients every day,” she said.

This training allows a neurology nurse, for instance, to evaluate a patient with vertigo otherwise than a medical nurse.

The nurse practitioner may not pay much attention to this and suggest the patient lie down. The neurology nurse will consider a cerebellar stroke or other sort of brain injury and further investigate the cause. By earning specialty certification in neurological nursing, RNs display their commitment to the patient population under their care. According to Anderson, this raises the skilled status of nurses by demonstrating a level of experience that others may not have. Neurological nursing is for nurses who, based on Anderson, truly have the desire to make a difference not only within the lives of patients, but additionally within the lives of families. “Patients think of you as the expert, and you have to be the expert,” Anderson said. “This is where certification and continuing education becomes crucial, because if you don’t know and you’re not an expert, how the hell are you going to help them?” Learn more about our Neurological Nursing Certification Review Course, where class sessions begin several times all year long.