Acute Stroke: Understanding and Using the NIHSS

Course overview

Every year, approximately 795,000 people suffer a stroke (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2021). Strokes kill nearly 137,000 people per year (NIH, 2016). Of the patients who survive, many experience moderate or severe impairments that require special care. The cost of stroke-related care and missed productivity was estimated at almost $46 billion in 2014 (CDC, 2021). The National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) is a tool used to measure the severity of stroke symptoms and aid in identifying the location of the injury. The NIHSS has been shown to strongly predict the likelihood of a patients recovery after stroke. The goal of this course is to equip clinicians with the knowledge necessary to apply the NIHSS to patients experiencing an acute stroke.