Nurses' Attitudes towards Feeding Elderly Patients with Severe Dysphagia

─ An Analysis Using a Case Study ─

Abstract

Purpose:　The purpose of this study was to clarify the attitudes of nurses towards feeding elderly patients with severe dysphagia.

Subjects and Methods:　We explored the attitudes of 129 nurses working at a hospital towards feeding elderly people with severe dysphagia. After reading a detailed case study of a fictitious 83-year-old patient, with a strong desire to continue oral ingestion despite severe dysphagia, participants were asked to complete a questionnaire.

Results:　When nurses were asked to take the perspective of a family member they were more positive about oral feeding than when they saw themselves in the role of a nurse (p＜0.01). Nurses who were positive about oral feeding from the perspective of a family member also tended to be positive about this when they viewed the case study from a nurse’s perspective (r＝0.731, p＜0.01). Considered from the viewpoint of a family member, the nurses who had experienced similar examples in their own lives were more positive about oral ingestion than those who did not have this experience (p＜0.01).

Consideration:　The different attitudes among nurses might arise from their dilemma of two hopes: giving patients a pleasure of savoring food and avoiding their agony and mortal danger posed by aspiration.

Conclusion:　These results suggested that nurses have to share their views, be aware of different attitudes, and reach agreement on how to care for patients with dysphagia by developing their facilitation skills.