Nutrition, Hydration, and Dysphagia in Long-Term Care: Differing Opinions on the Effects of Aspiration

Ojectives

This study examined the management of aspiration in skilled nursing settings, by determining speech-language pathologists’ and nursing staff members’ agreement about aspiration, interventions, and impact on residents’ nutrition and hydration status, as determined by agreement scores on a questionnaire.

Design

Cross sectional descriptive.

Setting

Health care; skilled nursing facility.

Participants

Seventy-eight speech-language pathologists (SLPs) and 83 nursing caregivers.

Intervention

Participants completed a survey questionnaire requesting a level of agreement with statements about aspiration and interventions for aspiration. Questionnaires also included demographic questions for analysis purposes.

Measurements

Agreement scores on a modified Likert scale.

Results

There were no significant differences in agreement scores for SLPs by formal training or years of experience. Nurses showed differences by experience for 2 statements, and by level of certification for 3 statements. There were significant differences between responses for nurses and SLPs for 7 of the 10 items. Both groups demonstrated content knowledge that conflicts with principles documented in the medical literature.

Conclusion

Results suggest that both SLP and nursing training programs should include more evidence from multidisciplinary sources, specifically the medical literature, to improve the knowledge base of clinicians providing care to residents with swallowing disorders.

Keywords: Dysphagia, aspiration, dehydration, speech pathology