Development of a scale to assess nurses' knowledge of stroke: A pilot study

Objective: To develop and rest an evidence-based scale to assess nurses kno wledge of stroke. Design: Question development by a multidisciplinary group of experts in str oke. Two self-completion questionnaire surveys. Setting: Two stroke units, one general medical and two elderly care wards i n three hospitals in the North-East of England. Subjects: Fifty-eight qualified nurses. Interventions: Scale to assess nurses' knowledge of stroke. Results: The overall response rate was 60%, Nurses on stroke units knew mor e about stroke than those in medical/elderly care wards. The scale was capa ble of discriminating between stroke units and medical/elderly care wards: mean difference was 4.18 (95% confidence intervals 1.68-6.69; p <0.001). Cr onbach's alpha was 0.7 indicating adequate internal consistency. Item non-r esponse did not exceed 10% for any question. Conclusions: We have developed a knowledge of stroke scale capable of discr iminating between nurses based in stroke units and medical/elderly care war ds, with low item non-response and adequate internal consistency. The scale is suitable for use as a component of studies evaluating the nursing of st roke patients.