Nurses’ knowledge regarding dysphagia: A cross-sectional study

Background

Dysphagia has a high prevalence with associated complications, such as respiratory infections and recurrent institutionalizations, factors associated with the burden of malnutrition and dehydration that negatively affects the patient's quality of life and entails added health costs.

Objective

To assess the knowledge of a group of Portuguese nurses regarding dysphagia and perform the cross-cultural adaptation of the questionnaire used.

Methods

Cross-sectional descriptive study based on an online self-ministered questionnaire sent to nurses, regardless of the length of professional experience and area of clinical practice. Data treatment was performed using the IMB SPSS computer software, and the open responses were treated using the QDA Miner Lite.

Results

241 nurses were enrolled between May and June 2021, of which 192 (79.6%) were female, with an age of 37.8 ± 8.3 years and a length of service of 14.4 ± 8.5 years. Overall knowledge of dysphagia was high (80.1%). Participants were dissatisfied with their knowledge and expressed a need for further training, mainly in therapeutic intervention.

Conclusions

It is essential to understand why nurses still consider themselves to lack knowledge despite higher levels of knowledge. Future research should explore these aspects. These findings corroborate the gap between the nurses’ perceived knowledge and their actual knowledge about dysphagia, which may influence practice by influencing the decision-making process. Due to its high prevalence and complications, this gap may translate into increased patient safety risks.