PURPOSE
Aspiration pneumonia (AP) is the major complication of dysphagia in patients with acute stroke. Nursing management for dysphagia influences on patients' health outcomes. The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate the effects of Dysphagia Nursing Protocol (DNP) for patients with acute stroke. We aimed to examine the incidence of AP and the dependency rate at the discharge.
METHODS
We used a non-equivalent control group posttest only design in this study. DNP was developed with content validity index > 0.75 in all items. This protocol was composed of the evaluation, education, complication prevention, and checking phases. After training the staff nurses, we applied DNP protocol to the experimental group. The control group was enrolled from June to August 2013 (n=80), and the experimental group was June to August 2014 (n=64).
RESULTS
The incidence of AP was 16.3% in control group while 4.7% in experimental group (p=.028), and the Odds Ratio (OR) was 0.26 (p=.045). The dependency ratio was 66.3% in control group while 43.8% in experimental group (p=.011), and the OR was 0.33 (p=.011).
CONCLUSION
DNP was beneficial for the reducing the risk of AP and the improved the functional status.

Citations

• Dysphagia and daily oral fluids among cerebrovascular stroke patients: an theory-based nursing intervention protocol
  Zeinab Hussein Ali, Marwa Abd-Elaziz, Amany Abdrbo
  Frontiers of Nursing.2023; 10(2): 213.     CrossRef