Rachel Gowland, 11 May 2021
Health Education England elearning for healthcare (HEE elfh) worked in partnership with Health Education England, Specialist Pharmacy Service, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists, National Institute for Health Research Devices for Dignity MedTech Co-operative and clinical experts to develop a new elearning session on Dysphagia and Medicines for carers and care home staff. There are also new assessments on existing sessions for carers and caterers in social care settings.
Dysphagia, which is difficulty chewing and/or swallowing food and drinks, has serious implications for a person’s health and wellbeing, with increased likelihood of chest infections, malnutrition, dehydration, choking incidents and hospitalisations. Patients with dysphagia may be unable to swallow their medicines safely.
About the Dysphagia elearning programme
The Dysphagia elearning programme has been designed to support knowledge and understanding of the management of dysphagia, specifically in the context of a care home environment. However, the sessions will also be useful to those supporting people with dysphagia in other environments, including hospital and community settings.
Care home workers, including managers, nurses, care workers, catering staff and the wider NHS team, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists, speech and language therapists, dietitians, and others working with patients with dysphagia will find this resource helpful.
About the elearning
The new session focuses on Dysphagia and Medicines. It describes how patients with swallowing difficulties may need changes to their medicines in order to take them safely, and the actions that carers and care home staff need to take.
The session includes sections on who to contact, what information to collect and describes the different ways patients may be advised to take medicines; including when and how to crush tablets or open capsules and when liquid medicines might be preferred. It includes advice on giving medicines with soft food or thickened fluids.
In response to feedback on existing sessions, dysphagia assessments have been added for health and care workers and for catering staff. The assessments aim to help learners to use evidence as part of achieving dysphagia competencies, as outlined in the Eating Drinking and Swallowing Competency Framework.
In addition to the new elearning session, existing sessions in the Dysphagia elearning programme includes:
- essentials
- food
- quality and safety
- training and resources
- workforce
Accessing the elearning
The elearning resources are free for the NHS workforce, carers, catering staff and AHPs, and they have been designed to be easy to use.
To learn more about the new elearning sessions, assessments, or the existing sessions, please visit the Dysphagia programme page.
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