Sharing knowledge with nursing home staff: an objective investigation

Nursing home staff are at the forefront of coping with swallowing and communication disorders. Our study, which is ongoing, collates information on the existing knowledge of such staff and demonstrates how their understanding can be increased by speech and language therapists' input. Twenty nursing homes agreed to participate in training (91% uptake). To date 16 nursing homes (113 staff) have completed training in swallowing and eight nursing homes (47 staff) in communication problems. Questionnaires were completed before and after training. There was a highly significant improvement after training.