Abstract
In the community hospital setting, the long-term management of individuals with dysphagia is habitually the responsibility of nurses and care assistants. The purpose of this study was to determine the knowledge base of normal swallowing, dysphagia and its management, amongst nurses and care assistants in the community hospital setting, as well as the influence of dysphagia training programmes. A 41-item questionnaire was administered to 30 nurses and 18 care assistants. Based on the study, the lack of resources and time and staff support, were seen as key factors in hindering service delivery. The results also indicated that nurses have a stronger knowledge base and understanding of the management of dysphagia than care assistants, however all participants who had received training had more extensive knowledge about dysphagia and its management (p<0.01), than those with no training, and were more likely to make an appropriate referral to the Speech and Language Therapist (p<0.05). The results suggest that dysphagia training programmes may be an effective means of establishing a concrete knowledge base for both nurses and care assistants to work from.