Key components of a successful transitional care program after acute stroke: a scoping review protocol

The objective of this review will be to identify and map key components of transitional care programs for adult patients with stroke transitioning from the hospital (ie, acute care hospitals, acute rehabilitation facilities, skilled nursing facilities) to the community (ie, home environments, senior living, assisted living without specialized nursing care).

Stroke survivors often experience impairments and are vulnerable to secondary comorbidities. These are compounded by inadequately addressed medical issues at discharge, gaps in health literacy, discharge care coordination challenges, and socioeconomic disparities. Transitional care management has emerged to support stroke survivors during their recovery phase. However, despite the plethora of transitional care programs and evidence indicating positive outcomes from various interventions, a gap remains in mapping and clarifying the key components of transitional care programs.

This scoping review will consider quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods study designs for inclusion. In addition, systematic reviews, text and opinion papers, and other relevant gray literature will be included. Studies will include patients aged 18 years or older, from any cultural or geographical context, transitioning from initial hospitalization after acute stroke to community settings. Children and those transitioning to long-term care will be excluded.

This review will follow the JBI methodology for scoping reviews and will be reported using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR). Several databases, including PubMed, CINAHL (EBSCOhost), and the Cochrane Library, will be searched for articles published in English since 2000. Two independent reviewers will extract data using a pre-designed tool, and findings will be presented graphically along with a narrative summary.

OSF https://osf.io/8cxgj.