The nursing role and function are still not clearly defined. Further education is needed to strengthen the contribution of nursing staff to patients' rehabilitation. Furthermore, focus on developing a professional language and a framework that supports continuity within daily care and rehabilitation is needed.

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Our study may provide clinical administrators and nurses in stroke care with information that may contribute to improved compliance with the European Stroke Strategies and evidence-based guidelines.

BACKGROUND: There is little high-level evidence for the effect of the nonverbal facilitation of swallowing on swallowing ability in the subacute stage of rehabilitation following severe acquired brain injury (ABI). OBJECTIVE: To pilot test a randomised controlled trial to determine the effect of an intensification of the nonverbal facilitation of swallowing on dysphagia. METHODS: Ten patients with severe ABI and dysphagia were randomised into two groups at a highly specialised neurorehabilitation clinic.The intervention group received an intensification of the nonverbal facilitation of swallowing and the control group received basic care of the face and mouth in addition to treatment as usual for two sessions of 20 minutes per day for three weeks.Outcomes were Functional Oral Intake Scale (FOIS), Penetration Aspiration Scale (PAS), and electrophysiological swallowing specific parameters (EMBI). RESULTS: The intensified intervention was feasible. PAS and FOIS scores improved in both groups, with no differences between groups. The swallowing specific parameters reflected clinically observed changes in swallowing. CONCLUSIONS: PAS and FOIS are feasible instruments to measure dysphagia. It is possible and valid to measure swallowing frequency and kinematics using electromyography and bioimpedance. The definitive study should have widened inclusion criteria and optimise intervention timing to maintain patient arousal.

Purpose: To 1) identify interventional research topics in traumatic brain injury (TBI) rehabilitation, 2) describe potential knowledge gaps, and 3) uncover further needs for interventional TBI rehabilitation research for patients and families.Method: We searched three databases (2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013)(2014)(2015)(2016)(2017)(2018)(2019) and screened 1552 non-duplicate articles.Titles and abstracts were screened for relevance, yielding 754 articles for full-text review. Of these, 425 were included, as relevant to the purpose of the scoping review.Findings: Among articles on TBI rehabilitation, the majority (71.8%) applied quantitative methodology; of these only 19.7% were randomized controlled trials. Severe TBI was described more often than mild/moderate TBI populations. Hospital vs community/home rehabilitation was 55.1% vs 37.2%; rehabilitation at workplace/school was described in only 4.5% articles, while in 7.2% the setting was undisclosed. Of 83 articles describing work/education, only 14 were in a work/school context. An additional focus in the work/education articles was activities of daily living (n=28), cognition (n=33) and emotions (n=23), few targeted family or network. Conclusion:The main attention of interventional TBI rehabilitation studies has been on severe TBI and long-term rehabilitation. Gaps identified were rehabilitation of mild/moderate TBI populations, older populations, acute/sub-phase rehabilitation, return to work issues and studies including the family.

The findings have practical implications in informing how clinicians meet, interact, communicate and involve relatives of adult patients' with traumatic brain injury in decision-making during rehabilitation.

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Aims and objectives: To study practice in consciousness assessment among neuroscience nurses in Europe.Background: Over the years, several instruments have been developed to assess