www.iaset.us editor@iaset.us THE LEVEL OF JORDANIAN NURSE'S KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DYSPHAGIA: DESCRIPTIVE STUDY HANA M. ABU-SNIENEH 1 & MOHAMMAD Y.N. SALEH 2 1 Research Scholar, School of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan 2 Associate Professor, School of Nursing, The University of Jordan, Amman, Jordan ABSTRACT In Jordan, the percentage of those aged 65 and above will rise from 4.6% in 2012 to 4.9% in 2020. Therefore, it is mandatry to consider a demographic shift, when planning health services, especially among elderly people who have the risk of stroke. Dysphagia is frequent happening after stroke and needs attention and care, because of many complications that could occur, post stroke. The main purpose of the study is, to describe the level of Jordanian nurse's knowledge, about dysphagia, among stroke patients in Jordanian hospital. Descriptive design was utilized. A convenience sample from the two university affiliated hospitals was used to recruit 140 Jordanian registered nurses. Descriptive statistics were used to examine some socio-demographic characteristics and work-related variables of participants. Secondly, it describes the participant's knowledge of dysphagia presented under subsections; knowledge of signs and symptoms and the complications of dysphagia. Participants, in both groups had a moderate level of overall knowledge related to dysphagia. The study’s findings support that dysphagia concept should be included in education and continuing training development programs and proliferation visibility of interdisciplinary work should be given to health care providers. KEYWORDS: Dysphagia, Level of Nurse's Knowledge about Dysphagia, Stroke INTRODUCTION Jordanian population is approximately 9.5 million (The Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, Department of Statistics (DOS), 2016). Age structure of the Jordanian population has been affected by birth, mortality rates, and immigration factors. In addition, the improved health care services in Jordan have increased the life expectancy, during 2007 – 2013, the average of life expectancy increased to 74.4 years. It is expected that, increased population lead an increase of the number of the elderly people, in Jordan. This in turn increases burden on the government budget and expands the amount of health expenditure. The global population, aged over 65 years is growing by 9 million a year, and by the year 2025 there will be more than 800 million people, above 65 years of age in the world (World Health Organization (WHO), 2016). In Jordan, the percentage of those aged 65 and above will rise from, 4.6% in 2012 to 4.9% in 2020. Therefore, it is mandatory to consider a demographic shift, when planning health services, especially among elderly people who have the risk of stroke (The High Health Council, The National Strategy for Health Sector in Jordan 2015- 2019). According to WHO, (2015) an estimated 17.5 million people died from cardiovascular diseases in 2012, representing 31% of overall global deaths. Of these deaths, an estimated 7.4 million were due to coronary heart diseases International Journal of Applied and Natural Sciences (IJANS) ISSN(P): 2319-4014; ISSN(E): 2319-4022 Vol. 6, Issue 6, Oct – Nov 2017; 29-46 © IASET