Nursing Issues and Measures for Cerebral Infarction: What to Know and Do?
Stroke is a serious condition that typically affects middle-aged and older adults, especially those with significant emotional fluctuations. When symptoms of stroke occur, immediate medical attention is required. Post-surgical patients may experience paralysis, facial asymmetry, or movement difficulties, necessitating careful nursing care and rehabilitation. The goal of stroke recovery care is to maximize patients' recovery in terms of physical strength, intellectual capacity, and social functioning. The damage to the nervous system can significantly impact cognitive, communication, motor, and sensory functions, leading to issues such as agnosia, apraxia, aphasia, paralysis, dysphagia, and sensory loss. Nurses must provide targeted, planned, and gradual care as the patient recovers.
1. Psychological Care: Stroke often occurs suddenly in middle-aged and older adults, who suddenly transition from normalcy to disability, unable to continue their social and beloved activities. Daily life requires the care of others, and elderly patients may experience sadness, loneliness, depression, irritability, impulsivity, and egocentricity, especially those with aphasia. They may have high standards for others and often experience emotional distress and pessimism when realizing their dependency. Therefore, nurses must exercise great responsibility, reason, empathy, patience, and meticulous care. Explaining the situation to patients, encouraging them to cooperate with doctors, offering frequent communication, inquiry, comfort, and encouragement, tailored to their individual psychological, cultural, occupational, and medical conditions. Through sincere conversations and answering questions, patients can be encouraged to cooperate with treatment and gain confidence in overcoming their illness.
2. Care for Facial Asymmetry: Common clinical manifestations include incomplete eyelid closure, drooping mouth corners, inability to wrinkle the forehead, close the eyes, puff the cheeks, or whistle. These symptoms can lead to negative emotions and loss of treatment confidence. Nurses should empathize with patients, offer emotional support, and establish trust. Dietary recommendations include easy-to-digest, nutritious, liquid, or semi-liquid foods. Encouraging patients to perform eye, mouth, and facial exercises and regularly massaging the affected areas is also beneficial.
3. Training for Early Patient Activity: Early mobilization can reduce the risk of lung infections and lower extremity venous thrombosis. Once the patient's condition stabilizes after a week, gradually increasing activity and functional exercises is recommended. Nurses can assist with massage and passive-active exercises to promote blood circulation, stimulate nerve function, prevent or reduce disuse atrophy of muscles, bones, and skin, stretch contracted muscles, maintain normal joint flexibility, and prevent joint deformities and contractions. The exercise process should be gradual and avoid overexertion.
