[Dysphagia] Answer to Jonathan

[eripley at yahoo.com (Irene Campbell-Taylor)]

  A quick answer to your question would be to read the ASHA position paper on skills and knowledge required re dysphagia. Just two of the many items that I find a majority are unaware of are:
   
  2.c Knowledge of significance and implications of abnormal findings as they relate to swallowing and/or feeding.
  How many have ever been taught a) how to perform a cranial nerve examination  and b) the signs of brain stem impairment such as extraocular movements? I remember being asked on this list, why anyone should be interested in whether or not a patient could raise the eyebrows. If you don?t know the answer to that then it is impossible to perform a complete clinical examination re swallowing.
   
  2.3 Identify significant signs, symptoms, medical conditions and medications pertinent to dysphagia.
   
  Clearly, an expectation of contribution toward the diagnosis of the cause of the symptom as well as an understanding of medications that affect swallowing. How many have been taught this?
  I know of no single source from which all of these skills and all of the required knowledge may be obtained. It is for this reason that I have spent years attempting to distill the required knowledge, if not the skills, into published materials and the reason that I continue to contribute to this mail list (although I suspect my distributors many times grind their teeth that I give so much of it away (-: )



Dr I Campbell-Taylor
Clinical Neuroscientist
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