Pre-hospital stroke care and the effectiveness of e-learning

.Introduction: A number of research and education initiatives have led to a rise in the quality of stroke care within the UK. One such focus is the use of e-learning to develop how healthcare workers manage patients suffering from stroke and stroke like symptoms. However, does this learning environment allow for effective development of the subject to take place? Method: Pre-hospital clinicians/workers (n=50) were asked to complete a knowledge based questionnaire focusing on stroke care. Once completed they undertook an e-learning course looking at the management of stroke and stroke like symptoms. Six weeks after the course participants completed an augmented version of the original questionnaire allowing for pre and post education data. Participants that did not complete all three parts were removed from the study. Results: For the pre-course questionnaire an average score of 64% was achieved amongst the participants. All participants then achieved a course score in excess of 89% and took an average 1hour 58 minutes to complete. The average score for the post-course questionnaire was 65% with a comparative increase between pre and post shown from 42% of the group, 33% remaining the same and 25% showing a decrease. Conclusion: The disparity between course results and the post course questionnaire may suggest that whilst participants did engage with the learning materials, the time afforded to completion did not allow for a suitable level of knowledge retainment to occur. This results in staff that may have a greater awareness of stroke, but who still revert back to basics when managing patients.