Educating undergraduate students about swallowing pretreatment for head and neck cancer patients

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Authors
Henton, Tara
Advisors
O'Bryan, Erin
Issue Date
2025-04-25
Type
Abstract
Keywords
Research Projects
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Citation
Henton, Tara. 2025. Educating undergraduate students about swallowing pretreatment for head and neck cancer patients. -- In Proceedings: 24th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forum. Wichita, KS: Wichita State University, p. 2
Abstract

Most patients with head and neck cancer receive chemoradiation that often results in long-term severe swallowing deficits. Research shows that swallowing pretreatment provided by a speech-language pathologist can counteract these deficits if patients are referred for swallowing intervention early enough in their treatment plan. A recent interprofessional education project showed that a one-hour presentation increased nurse practitioner students' and physician associate students' knowledge of these issues. The current project investigates the following research question: Will Communication Sciences and Disorders undergraduate students demonstrate increased knowledge of swallowing pretreatment for patients with head and neck cancer from a similar educational presentation? A pretest will be given to gather information on the students' prior knowledge. Then, the undergraduate students will listen to a presentation based on the aforementioned interprofessional education project. A post-test will follow to measure if the students' knowledge has increased. The pretest and post-test data will be analyzed statistically to determine whether the increases are significant. The changes in students' scores will be reported and the implications for the research question will be discussed. If students' knowledge increases significantly following the education module, it adds to the evidence that this is an effective method of teaching students about this vital issue. Improved awareness of the benefits of swallowing pretreatment may strengthen referrals for swallowing intervention. This study is a component of a larger project aiming to improve long-term swallowing outcomes for head and neck cancer patients.

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Description
Third place winner of poster presentations for Applied Sciences at the 24th Annual Undergraduate Research and Creative Activity Forum (URCAF) held in the Woolsey Hall, Wichita State University, April 25, 2025.
Publisher
Wichita State University
Journal
Book Title
Series
URCAF;v.24
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