Eating disabilities in patients who have suffered a CVA : nurses' perceptions and interventions

Abstract

This study sought to explore nurses' perceptions and interventions of eating disabilities in patients who have suffered a CV A. A descriptive non-experimental design, incorporating a mixture of qualitative and quantitative approaches was adopted. The study involved a convenience sample of fifteen participants. These represent the total population eligible for this study. A questionnaire was constructed to collect data from nurses working in a medical ward. A response rate of 100% was obtained. Findings indicate that nurses are aware of the eating disabilities that a patient may face after a CV A. Nurses' perceptions proved to be correct whilst the actions taken by them indicated that nurses lack certain knowledge as regards to the provision of skilled help i.e. of other professionals, such as speech therapists, occupational therapists and physiotherapists. Some of the proposed recommendations put forward following completion of this research project include educational sessions for nurses by physiotherapists and occupational therapists in order to improve understanding of the proper position the patient should be in while swallowing and addressing ways by the help of speech language therapists on how CVA patients can communicate better with nurses in order to express their meal preferences. Owing to the fact that this was the researcher's first research project and the small sample size this study suffers from a number of limitations. On the other hand the fact that this study fills a gap in the literature since no other study was found on nurses' perceptions and interventions on eating disabilities following a CVA, is considered as a strength which helped in exploring this field of study.