Using dosimetric information to guide dysphagia management in patients with head and neck cancer: Clinicians’ knowledge and experiences

Abstract

Purpose: The use of dosimetric information to guide the management of dysphagia related to head and neck cancer (HNC) treatment is an emerging area of practice. In order to better meet the needs of people with dysphagia in HNC, it is important to explore how clinicians use this information to guide practice and also to identify factors that influence/discourage the use of dosimetric information.

Method: A descriptive qualitative method was chosen and purposeful sampling with additional snowball sampling were used to recruit clinicians working within Australian cancer centres. To facilitate participation, clinicians were offered either a focus group or individual interview as a means to collect their perspectives. A total of 20 clinicians with varying years of clinical experience (range 2.5 − 29 years) were recruited. Eight participants took part in a focus group and 12 elected to participate in an individual interview. Content analysis was used to analyse transcripts.

Result: Three main themes emerged from the transcripts: (1) clinician factors such as experience, confidence and knowledge and (2) clinical service factors such as staffing levels, clinical management pathways and system access influence use of dosimetric information; (3) patient factors such as demographics, surgical history and education needs influence dysphagia management plans.

Conclusion: Speech-language pathologists' (SLPs’) use of dosimetric information within HNC settings to direct patient management is emerging and varies between clinicians and workplaces. Given that dosimetric information potentially enables specialised dysphagia management planning for patients during their radiotherapy treatment, further education and training for speech-language pathologists in this area should be prioritised.

Keywords:

• dosimetry
• dysphagia
• head and neck cancer

Declaration of interest

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).