[Nurses' role in the therapeutic team of stroke units]

Over the last decade, stroke units have been increasingly established in Germany. Within these units, nurses have been identified as having a crucial role in the coordination of multi-professional team activities. However, currently very little data exists to support this fact; therefore, a questionnaire was developed to assess various aspects of the nurses' role within the multi-professional team, including cooperation with other team members (e.g., communication behaviour and acceptance within the multi-professional team), contribution to team and unit organisation, and impact on patient recovery. A total of 55 multi-disciplinary staff members from three separate stroke units completed the questionnaire. Results showed that staff have comparable estimates concerning the nurses' level of interdisciplinary cooperation. As well, nurses and other non-medical staff rate nurses' contribution to unit organisation comparably high while physicians' ratings of nurses' contribution are lower. The professional groups' ratings of the nurses' contribution to patient recovery vary. The results indicate that German stroke unit nurses contribute significantly to stroke unit care by acting as coordinators of the unit organisation for various multi professional team members.