Eating difficulties in newly-onset stroke patients: A qualitative inquiry of nurses’ perceptions of the situation

Abstract

Eating difficulties are one of the challenges experienced by stroke survivors. It is necessary to examine eating difficulties from a broader perspective and not only focus on swallowing. As nurses play a vital role in ensuring good nutrition, greater attention should be given to explore this phenomenon. This paper reports a study to explore nurses' perceptions of caring for newly-onset acute stroke patients with eating difficulties. Twelve registered nurses from two medical wards of an acute hospital in Hong Kong were invited to participate in an interview. Using latent content analysis, five categories resulted to describe the responses nurses took to take care of newly-onset stroke patients with eating difficulties during the acute phase of their illness. The categories 'recognizing patients with eating difficulties' and 'determining swallowing competence as a perquisite to eating' were described by nurses as being the initial responses they took to determine the patient's ability to eat safely. This was followed by the category 'dealing with patients emotions when eating' and 'taking risks and negotiating food choices'. Ultimately, the last category was to prepare family members and the patients to overcome the eating difficulties to enable the patient to be safely discharged home. Nurses should give equal attention to recognizing the cues and mixed emotions of patients confronted with eating difficulties as well as swallowing difficulties. Given that there is a reliance on nurses to help feed the patients, investing time to negotiate safe food choices with the patients and their family members is also needed.