Published: May 25, 2008 11:09 pm      

2-day seminar about strokes will start Thursday at KDMC

Ashland — A symposium to maximize the management of the stroke patient and featuring local experts and nationally renowned speakers, is scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the King’s Daughters Medical Center Paul G. Blazer Jr. Health Education Center.

The Thursday dinner program will begin at 6 p.m. and feature Jason Thurman, M.D., associate medical director at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center Stroke Center, in the discussion “Emergent Evaluation and Management of Acute Ischemic Stroke.” KDMC neurosurgeon Clark Bernard, M.D., will follow with “Stroke Patients: When to Call the Neurosurgeon.”

Neuroscience clinical nurse specialist Linda R. Littlejohns, R.N., MSN, CCRN, CNRN, of California, will kick off Friday’s program with her lecture “Underlying Knowledge — Anatomy, Disease and Deficits and Assessment of the Vascular Patient.”

Friday’s second speaker, neuroscience nursing consultant Ellen Barker, MSN, APN, CNRN, CLCP, ABDA, of Greenville, Del., will offer the following discussions: “New and Novel Post-Stroke Rehabilitation: CIMT and BWSTT;” “Community Stroke Risk Screening with Tool for Screening and Teaching” and “Nurses as Stroke Experts Challenged to Reduce Stroke Mobidity and Mortality.”

The event is designed for physicians, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, nurses, physical and occupational therapists, social workers and other health care professionals. Program information is intended to increase the participant’s knowledge of the evaluation and management of stroke patients for application in practice and improvement of patient outcomes.

Continuing education credits are available; this activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit. The program is offered at no cost to participants, but registration is required by calling (606) 408-6829.

Parking for guests is available in KDMC’s Lexington Avenue and 23rd Street parking garages. The Health Education Center is in the lower level of the Lexington Avenue parking building.