Background: Professional caregivers, such as nursing staff, are sometimes reluctant to give people with dysphagia snacks or beverages for fear on non-adherence to their specialized diets. The International Dysphagia Diets Standardization Initiative (IDDSI) framework, along with its auditing methods, has shown potential as a training tool to objectively teach professional caregivers about texturally modified diets; however, verbal or written instruction alone has not been effective to improve caregivers’ ability to actually implement texturally modified diets. Objective: The aim of this investigation is to improve caregivers’ competence to implement texturally modified diets by teaching them a standardized framework for diet texture modification to assist with safe nutrition and hydration intake for their patients with dysphagia. Method: This single-subject study uses a multiple-baseline across participants design to explore the effectiveness of a meal preparation and nutrition education program on nursing staff members’ knowledge and skills to implement texturally modified diets based on the IDDSI framwork. Results: Participants demonstrated an average of 27.50% skills improvement and a 23.33% knowledge improvement after they completed 10 short training sessions focused on education and application practice with meal preparation using the IDDSI framework. Conclusion: These findings suggest that IDDSI is an effective training tool for professional caregivers when training includes both verbal instruction and application practice. Additionally, caregivers in a hospital setting demonstrate higher levels of competence to implement texturally modified diets for people with dysphasia after direct training with the IDDSI framework and nutrition strategies.
