Registered Nurse's Competency To Screen Dysphagia Among Stroke Patients: Literature Review

BACKGROUND: An increased number of elderly people in the world may lead to an increase in the incidence of stroke, which creates a burden on the country’s healthcare system. Dysphagia is the most common post stroke. Screening of dysphagia in stroke patients is serious to prevent complication linked to aspiration and inadequate hydration/nutrition. OBJECTIVE: This literature review aimed to discuss registered nurses' competency to screen dysphagia among stroke patients. METHODS: The keywords used were nurse's competency; dysphagia; dysphagia screening; and stroke. These keywords were entered into multiple electronic databases including CINAHL, Medline, Science Direct, Pro Quest, Pub Med, and Wiley Online Library. Aliterature search was conducted for the period2005 to 2016.Results:Seventeen studies were identified by a systematic search ofthe literature.Two parts created the body of this literature review. The first part covers the literature on the training nurses in screening dysphagia among stroke patients and benefits of screening. The second part covers nurse's competency in terms of knowledge and skills of screening dysphagia among stroke patients. CONCLUSION: Because the nurses have more contact with the patient, they are most likely to observe dysphagia. It is important that formal dysphagia screening protocols are routine nursing care that requires special training to practice. Trained nurses should assess their competency in terms of knowledge and skills via well-developed tool.