Caring for Hemorrhagic Stroke: Johanna L. Watkinson, APN

“We, in our unit, have been involved in some studies to get people involved with the most up-to-date technology available. For people who have intraparenchymal hemorrhages, strictly in the brain tissue, a lot of times traditionally, unless it was severely causing deficits on the neuro exam, you did not do surgery because it was not beneficial. Now we are doing some endovascular approaches to remove those hematomas and we’re very involved in evaluating the appropriate patients.”

Last month, Atlantic Health System hosted its annual stroke symposium, which featured a number of speakers from the various hospitals and care centers in the system who discussed some of the latest updates that have occurred in stroke-related care. One such speaker was Johanna L. Watkinson, APN, acute care nurse practitioner, Overlook Medical Center, who discussed the care of individuals with hemorrhagic stroke in the neuro-ICU setting.

Watkinson discussed a number of advances that have been made in the care of these patients, additionally focusing on the role that acute care nurse practitioners can play in that care model. She also highlighted the scenarios that she has encountered when triaging these complex patients, including when to escalate the care and when and how to keep the individual’s family involved in the process.

In this interview with NeurologyLive, Watkinson offered a glimpse into the content of her presentation at the symposium. She shared her perspective on some of the major improvements that have been made in the care of hemorrhagic stroke, how technological advances and study involvement have helped push this care into a new paradigm, and the involvement of the nurse practitioner in the whole process in the Atlantic Health model.­