Abstract:
BACKGROUND : Early identification of stroke-related oropharyngeal dysphagia (OPD) using
screening by nurses can prevent adverse patient outcomes in lower middle-income countries.
Nurses are essential in the OPD management team and should ideally be able to screen and
prioritise dysphagia management in stroke patients.
OBJECTIVE : The aim of this research was to describe nurses’ practices related to identification
and management of patients with stroke-related OPD.
METHODS : Qualified nurses from various healthcare levels in the Eastern Cape, South Africa
were invited to complete a previously published hard copy survey on the signs and symptoms,
complications and management of stroke-related OPD. A sample of 130 participants completed
the survey.
RESULST : The mean scores of correct responses for each section were: 8.7/13 (66.7%) for signs
and symptoms, 4.7/10 (47.3%) for complications and 3.8/7 (54.2%) for management practices.
Statistically, there were no differences between the levels of healthcare for the signs and
symptoms section and the complications section. Regarding management of OPD, secondarylevel
(S) nurses demonstrated significantly better knowledge than primary-level (P) and
tertiary-level (T) nurses (S–P: p = 0.022; S–T: p = 0.010). Secondary-level nurses also scored
significantly higher across all three sections (S–P: p = 0.044; S–T: p = 0.025) than those at the
other levels.
CONCLUSIONS : The study found that nurses across all levels of healthcare had only moderate
knowledge regarding identification and management of stroke-related OPD. Interdisciplinary
collaboration between nurses and speech–language therapists may improve nurses’ knowledge
in identification and management of stroke-related OPD in lower middle-income settings such as South Africa.
