Dysphagia, Diet Types, Foodborne Illnesses, Glucose

So first up, we're talking about dysphagia, dysphagia with a "G," which means difficulty swallowing. So difficulty swallowing, what's the first thing that should come to your mind when you think of someone who's having a hard time swallowing food or water? I'm going to tell you. It is increased risk for aspiration. That is bold and red on this card, so I would very much know it. If I'm having a hard time swallowing, it could end up going down my trachea instead of my esophagus. So there are lots of different risk factors for this. But I do want to go to educate your patient on strategies to improve swallowing, such as taking smaller bites, chewing thoroughly, and sitting upright while eating. It's also important to monitor the patient during meals and offer assistance as needed. Additionally, you should collaborate with other members of the healthcare team, such as dietitians and occupational therapists, to ensure the patient's nutritional needs are being met. Overall, attentive nursing care and interdisciplinary collaboration are key in managing dysphagia effectively. To educate your patients, it is important to emphasize that when they swallow, they should tuck their chin to their chest. This is crucial when swallowing food or water. Moving on to therapeutic diet types, this refers to any prescribed or ordered diet. It determines what your patient in the hospital can consume. NPO stands for "nothing by mouth," which means no intake, including liquids. Clear liquids, on the other hand, are liquids that are transparent and can be passed through by light at room temperature. Examples include juices like grape, apple, and cranberry juice, as long as they do not contain any pulp or sediment. Black coffee,tea, water, broth - as long as it's just broth and not a creamy soup - all of those are going to be clear liquids. Also, things like popsicles and ice chips. Now, full liquids are going to be any kind of liquid. So this could be all of the clear liquid items. But then also things like orange juice or milk, coffee with creamer, ice cream. Again, remember liquid at room temperature. Now, soft in dysphagia diets are a little bit similar. You're going to see some things in common. But a soft diet consists of soft food that is low in fiber, making it easily digested. Dysphagia diets also include soft foods that are moistened or pureed. However, the important thing to note here is the inclusion of thickened liquids. On the other hand, the regular diet is just the normal consistency intake like what a patient would eat at home. Alright, moving on, let's talk about the prevention of foodborne illnesses. This is going to be an important topic to cover to be patient teaching. Lots of red and bold stuff here on this card that's very important to know, so I would review this. The big thing is going to be hand hygiene before preparing meals and before eating, using separate equipment to prepare raw foods and cooked food so we don't cross-contaminate, and then using a meat thermometer to make sure that meat is fully cooked. There's some more teaching on there that I would recommend reviewing in your own time as well. Lastly, we're going to talk about capillary blood glucose measurement. So this is how we use a glucometer to assess a patient's blood glucose level. You're going to see we have a bunch of best practices here, but I just want to point out a few. The first is that when we clean the skin with an alcohol swab, we need to let it dry completely so that the wet alcohol does not affect the readings. We want to use a lancet, which is the needle that punctures the finger. We want to use it on the lateral aspect of the finger. Not the finger pad. There's a lot of nerves, a lot of sensation right here in the middle, so use the sides of the finger, not the finger pad, and then make sure that you wipe away the first drop of blood. So we're going to get that first drop of blood, wipe it away, and then use the second one to get the actual reading. So there's more information on this card, as well, but those are the big highlights that I want to hit for you. So I hope that review was helpful. If it was, please go ahead and like this video. It would mean the world to me. If you have a great way to remember something, I want to see it in the comments. And I know that other people watching want to know as well. And be sure to subscribe to our channel because you want to be the first to know when the next video comes out. The next video in the series is going to be talking about nasogastric or NG tubes. Super-duper important for school so you want to be up to date with all of that. Alright, thanks so much and happy studying.