Acute Stroke Action Program (ASAP)

Join the Acute Stroke Action Program (ASAP), an opportunity for WUMS 1s and 2s to carry the acute stroke pager for 1-2 weeks and race to the ED along with the stroke team to observe the hyperacute management of patients experiencing a stroke. Students will be able to go about their regular daily routine and only run to the ED when a potential candidate for thrombolytic therapy (tPA) arrives and the stroke pager is activated. This occurs 0-4 times per day, averaging out to once a day. Students who live close enough could come in for night pages too if desired. For patients who are found to have a proximal thrombus and are taken to the angiography suite for mechanical clot retrieval, interested students could observe the intervention from just outside the room, where everything is visible, including real-time angiographic images.

Learning objectives of the program:

Recognize historical features, exam findings, and imaging findings of acute stroke.
Explain how eligibility for tPA administration and mechanical thrombectomy in acute stroke is determined.
Observe/calculate the NIH Stroke Scale as it is performed in a patient with acute stroke.
Describe how consent to administer tPA is obtained.
Appraise the acute stroke treatment process and identify factors that introduced delays.