A New Concept in Stroke Care

Welcoming a New Unit
On January 12, 2009 the new Stroke & Surgical Step Down Unit opened on S8 South in the Spain Wallace Building. With the opening of this unit, a new concept in stroke care came to UAB. The concept is to take care of stroke patients from the onset of their diagnosis until they are discharged from the hospital.

Staff Preparation
The unit's new staff has taken classes specific to stroke care in order to best manage and serve this population. They have worked in the classroom and on several floors to learn to assess these patients and give cutting edge care. While on orientation this group of nurses worked with other staff on NICU, M8, P7, SICU, Heart & Vascular Center and the Pool staff to learn how stroke and post surgical patients are taken care of in various settings.

Working Together
The unit has a capacity of 20 beds, 10 are for stroke patients and 10 are for step down surgical patients. The nurses on this unit have come from a variety of settings and are new to UAB. They are setting a standard for the unit of working together while learning the UAB Hospital system. When a nurse visits this unit during shift report they will see everyone huddled together like a great team discussing patient information. Watching this staff at the bedside one will see the UAB core values in action. This staff communicates with the patients and their families, they follow up on questions, they collaborate with other team members to get the best outcomes for their patients. Most of all, they care everyday about how their patients are progressing. This is nursing touching our community, one patient at a time!