A Preliminary Study of Nursing Practice Patterns Concerning Dysphagia Diet Modification: Implications for Interprofessional Education With SLPs

Purpose Speech-language pathologists (SLPs) are trained to evaluate and treat dysphagia. One treatment method is to modify diet consistency or viscosity to compensate for swallowing dysfunction and promote a safer intake; this typically involves softening solids and thickening liquids. Thickening liquids is not safer for all patients, and modification of dysphagia diets without adequate training may reduce the quality of dysphagia patient care. Over 90% of SLPs working in health care report exposure to nurses who regularly downgrade dysphagia diets without an SLP consult. This study explores dysphagia diet modification practices of nursing staff with and without dysphagia training. Method Practicing nurses and student nurses ( N = 298) in the United States were surveyed regarding their dysphagia diet modification training and practice patterns. Additionally, a pre-/posttest design was used to determine the efficacy of a short general tutorial on willingness to modify diets without an SLP consult. Results Downgrading diets without an SLP consult is a common practice. Fewer than one third of nurses (31.41%) would avoid it, whereas 73.65% would avoid upgrading without SLP consult. Formal dysphagia training made little difference to this practice. The short general tutorial also had no beneficial effect, in fact slightly reducing the willingness to consult SLPs. Conclusions Dysphagia diet modification practice by nurses is pervasive in U.S. health care. This is a previously unexplored but common issue SLPs face in work settings. This study identifies a need to clarify guidelines and increase interprofessional education between both professions to improve patient care.