Should Dysphagia Patients Get Crushed Medications?? The Pros and Cons of Crushed Medicine

“Crush patient’s meds with applesauce…”

How many times have you written that as a recommendation?

Or what about this…

“Can you come see this patient? They’re having trouble with pills.”

If you’re an SLP, you may have heard this…oh, a million times?

Trouble swallowing pills is a common complaint from our patients with dysphagia.

While we may have the best intentions by recommending something to make pills go down easier, we can actually create more harm than good.

As SLPs, it’s really important to understand the ins and outs of different medication delivery modes.

That’s why, today, we’re going to be talking about the pros and cons of crushing medications.

And answering the question, “Should dysphagia patients get crushed medications?”

Watch and Enjoy!
Theresa Richard


VIDEO RESOURCE:
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If you’d like to tune into a conversation dedicated to this very topic, check out episode 173 of the Swallow Your Pride podcast where Amanda Weissberg dives into the considerations we need to keep in mind when recommending how our patients should take their medication.

We also have a resource titled “To Crush or Not to Crush? Crushing Medication Considerations” inside the MedSLP Collective.

https://syppodcast.com/173

You can also check out the free MedSLP Collective clipboard kit for access to editorial reviewed resources on other various conditions that we treat.

https://medslpcollective.com/clipboard


KEY MOMENTS IN THE EPISODE:
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00:00 Should Dysphagia Patients Get Crushed Medications??
01:08 The Pros
05:09 The Cons
07:30 What can you do?
10:14 Checkout episode 173 of the Swallow Your Pride Podcast


WHAT TO WATCH NEXT:
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Imaging, Labs, and Vitals, Oh My! What Med SLPs Should Understand In Medical Charts:    • Imaging, Labs, and Vitals, Oh My! What Med...  


ACCESS TO MED SLP RESOURCES:
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Get my Amazon and Barnes & Noble Best Selling Book;
So You're Having Trouble Swallowing: The essential guide to basic swallowing, swallowing disorders, and navigating care. https://theresarichard.com/book

Listen to the Swallow Your Pride Podcast:
Dive deeper into the issues that speech-language pathologists face when working with patients with swallowing disorders. https://swallowyourpridepodcast.com

MedSLPEd (an approved ASHA CEU provider):
Offering live and recorded online courses that fill the gap between grad school and clinical practice. Each course is in-depth, goes far beyond the textbook rhetoric, and focuses on case-based learning. https://medslped.com/

MedSLP Clipboard Kit:
30 blind editorial reviewed resources written by 15 contributors with over 150 references to support its contents. https://medslpcollective.com/clipboard

MedSLP Pediatric Clipboard Kit:
Get instant access to blind editorial-reviewed pediatric resources for Medical SLPs with references to support its contents. https://info.medslpcollective.com/med...


CITED ARTICLES:
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PILL-5 Screening Questionnaire. Retrieved at https://tiglutik.com/wp-content/uploa...

Nativ-Zeltzer, N., Bayoumi, A., Mandin, V. P., Kaufman, M., Seeni, I., Kuhn, M. A., & Belafsky, P. C. (2019). Validation of the PILL-5: A 5-item patient-reported outcome measure for pill dysphagia. Frontiers in Surgery, 6, 43. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsurg.2019.00043

Price G, Patel DA. Drug Bioavailability. [Updated 2022 Jun 23]. In: StatPearls [Internet]. Treasure Island (FL): StatPearls Publishing; 2022 Jan-. Available from: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NB...

Cornish P. (2005). "Avoid the crush": hazards of medication administration in patients with dysphagia or a feeding tube. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal = journal de l'Association medicale canadienne, 172(7), 871–872. https://doi.org/10.1503/cmaj.050176

Jackson, L. D., Little, J., Kung, E., Williams, E. M., Siemiatkowska, K., & Plowman, S. (2008). Safe medication swallowing in Dysphagia: A collaborative improvement project. Healthcare Quarterly (Toronto, Ont.), 11(3 Spec No.), 110–116. https://doi.org/10.12927/hcq.2008.19660


ABOUT THERESA RICHARD::
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Theresa Richard, a medical speech pathologist for 15+ years, is a board certified specialist in swallowing and swallowing disorders, and the founder and CEO of the MedSLP Collective and MedSLP Education. Theresa is also the mother of a son with severe disabilities who humbles her daily and is the inspiration behind all of the work she does in the world.

Theresa, host of Swallow Your Pride Podcast, has over 3 million unique downloads, and her book “So You’re Having Trouble Swallowing'' is an Amazon and Barnes and Noble best seller.

Theresa Richard, M.A. CCC-SLP, BCS-S - Medical Speech Language Pathologist


https://www.TheresaRichard.com/

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#SLP
#MedicalSLP
#Dysphagia