Knowledge and experience of local emergency care staff on stroke recognition and acute care in the United Arab Emirates

Introduction: Cerebrovascular diseases are among the top three causes of death in the United Arab Emirates. The acute stroke care survey among emergency care personnel in Alain City aims to assess the experience, knowledge and attitude of emergency department staff about acute stroke care to identify areas for educational and training interventions. Method: This is an observational cross-sectional Face-to-Face electronic survey of the Emergency care doctors and nurses across four emergency/urgent care centres in Alain, the United Arab Emirates. The survey was completed between 4th August 2023 to 15th October 2024 using a locally validated survey questionnaire. Results: Of the 215 participants in the study, 178 (83%) completed the survey of which 56% were Physicians. Two-thirds (66.1%) of the responders work in a tertiary care centre and about a third 49 (35.4%) of the responders personally cared for more than ten stroke or TIA patients in the past three months. Over 75% of the responders identified facial droop, unilateral arm or leg weakness and slurred speech as symptoms of acute stroke. Only 61% of the responders recognised atrial fibrillation as a risk factor. The overall mean (SD) knowledge score was 59.76 (23.74) for physicians compared with 52.9 (21.35) for nurses (P = 0.054). There was a significant difference in the overall mean (SD) knowledge score between responders from tertiary and secondary centres. (59.9 (21.8) versus 51.8 (21.9) respectively, P = 0.019. Responders with < 2 years of experience achieved a significantly lower mean (SD) score compared with responders with > 2 years of experience in all domains (47.1 (27.34) compared with 60.54 (20.1) for those with > 10 years of experience, P = 0.008). Conclusions: This study identified significant knowledge gaps among staff working in our stroke care system. These can be addressed by regular stroke update training for all front-line staff including those working at secondary centres with limited experience of daily stroke care.