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Judith A Spilker, RN
Neurovascular Research Director
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Judith Spilker, RN, BSN is a Nursing graduate of Miami University of Ohio, and has practiced Neuroscience Nursing since 1978. She has experience as a nurse manager and neuroscience nurse clinician on a Neuro/neurosurgery unit. In 1984 she began working with (and is still a member of) the University of Cincinnati Stroke Research Team. During the last 18 years, she has acquired extensive experience in the coordination of acute stroke clinical trials. These NIH NINDS-funded trials include Naloxone, t-PA Stroke and IMS combined IV/IA rt-PA trials, as well as industry funded Ancrod, Atlantis, Gain I, Lubeluzole/t-Pa Combined and ReoPro Stroke. Currently, she is the Clinical Research Coordinator for the CLEAR Trial, a project included in the NINDS funded SPROTRIAS Award.
Beginning in the early 1990’s, Judith served as a consultant for the development implementation of the National Stroke Association’s Clinical Trials Acceleration Program and later as a consultant for the Stroke Center Network. In that capacity she visited over 40 community hospitals in the US and Canada interested in improving their stroke care, developing stroke centers or participating in clinical stroke research. In the role of consultant, Judith evaluates an institution’s current structure for stroke care delivery and helps to identify and problem solve barriers to early treatment, stroke care operational/administrative/reimbursement issues, as well as knowledge and attitudinal barriers of the professional care providers. In 1999, as a stroke subject matter expert for VHA, Inc. Clinical Advantage Quality Assurance Team, she assisted in developing the clinical content for the “Leveraging The Critical First 24 Hours of Stroke Care”, a rapid-cycle-change program implemented in over 3 geographic regions and 60 hospitals in the US. She is currently serving on the editorial Board of the “The Stroke Inverventionalist” and as an educational content collaborator to The Stroke Group, Inc.
Ms. Spilker has also been involved in community and professional stroke education efforts on local, regional and national levels. She was a member of the NIH NINDS steering committee (public education task force chair) for the National Symposium on Rapid Identification and Treatment of Acute Stroke. She is a member of the American Heart Association’s Council on CV Nursing, Committee on Stroke Nursing. In 2001, she received the National Stroke Association’s “Visionary In Practice Award” for her volunteer contribution towards enhancing the lives of those affected by Stroke. In 1998, in response to frequently voiced requests, she co-produced “The Quick and Easy NIH Stroke Scale (NIHSS) and Tutorial Program, an educational tool directed toward educating non-neurologists healthcare practitioners. This program helps the non-neurologist understand what the NIHSS assesses and how to perform and score the NIHSS to enable them to incorporate this tool into their own clinical practice. Over 1,000 copies of the tutorials have been sold as in-service education tools in the US.
Over the last 15 years, Ms. Spilker has taken a leadership role in publishing nursing articles addressing emergent care and treatment of the acute ischemic stroke patient. Her goal has been to communicate back to her profession regarding the cutting edge nursing care information she has experienced in her research nurse position. In 1987, she addressed the nurses’ use of the NIHSS to identify the sensory and motor deficits that define and classify the potential for injury nursing diagnosis so frequently seen in the stroke patient population. In 1997, in collaboration with her NINDS Trial Nursing Colleagues, she helped create the definitive nursing care content on the care of the stroke patient treated with rt-PA, which was published as the December 1997 edition of The Journal of Neuroscience Nursing. She has also served as a consultant and reviewer of the American Association of Neuroscience Nurses “Recommendations for the Nursing Management of the Hyperacute Ischemic Stroke Patient”.
Finally, Ms Spilker had made over 50 national and international presentations on the assessment and care of acute stroke patients to nursing groups, including the Critical Care Nurses Association, Emergency Nursing Association and the American Association of Neuroscience Nursing audiences. She also has served as voluntary faculty for the last 5 years at the University of Cincinnati College of Nursing for the graduate program in Advanced Adult Health Nursing on the topic of ischemic stroke. Her areas of particular interest include the use of thrombolytics therapy and using the NIH stroke scale in clinical practice. |
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