Stroke

Ok so your patient is not behaving normally.  Whether they are Altered in their mental state or not. There are certain ways to assess your patient to see whether he or she had a stroke or not.

The first way to check for stoke is testing the patients mental status.  Aphasia is a common symptom of someone having a stroke. This means they cannot speak or understand your language.  Someone who is having trouble speaking or understanding could be suffering with a stroke.

The second assessment technique is going to be checking for facial droop.  Unilateral, one sided facial droop is a common sign for stroke. Have the patient give you a big smile and look to see if there is unilateral facial droop.

The next test is going to be unilateral strength loss.  To test this you will lift the patient hands before them above their head palms out. Then you let the patient hold his or her hands above their head without you helping.  If they have unilateral strength loss one side of the patient body will slowly fail or be let down.  This is a common sign of a stroke.

The next test is to look at the patients eyes.  Unilateral pupil dilation is a common sign for a stroke in your patients.