Action Planning for Daily Mouth Care in Long-Term Care: The Brushing Up on Mouth Care Project

Abstract

<jats:p>Research focusing on the introduction of daily mouth care programs for dependent older adults in long-term care has met with limited success. There is a need for greater awareness about the importance of oral health, more education for those providing oral care, and organizational structures that provide policy and administrative support for daily mouth care. The purpose of this paper is to describe the establishment of an oral care action plan for long-term care using an interdisciplinary collaborative approach.<jats:italic>Methods</jats:italic>. Elements of a program planning cycle that includes assessment, planning, implementation, and evaluation guided this work and are described in this paper. Findings associated with assessment and planning are detailed. Assessment involved exploration of internal and external factors influencing oral care in long-term care and included document review, focus groups and one-on-one interviews with end-users. The planning phase brought care providers, stakeholders, and researchers together to design a set of actions to integrate oral care into the organizational policy and practice of the research settings.<jats:italic>Findings</jats:italic>. The establishment of a meaningful and productive collaboration was beneficial for developing realistic goals, understanding context and institutional culture, creating actions suitable and applicable for end-users, and laying a foundation for broader networking with relevant stakeholders and health policy makers.</jats:p>

Oral health and cancer screening in long‐term care nursing facilities: Motivation and opportunity as intervention targets

“…Further, Weening‐Vervree et al note that often knowledge, self‐efficacy and facilitation of behaviours are the determinants often addressed in implementation strategies to improved OHC in older patients, yet it is just as important to examine the setting and target interventions based upon conceptual models that capture specific organizational dynamics (captured by the third‐order codes reported in Table ). Further, this investigations suggest a multi‐pronged approach to improving OHC by target CNA's, family members and the entire LTCNF staff.…”

Implementing Oral Care Practices and Policy Into Long-Term Care: The Brushing up on Mouth Care Project

“…43 The first 2 phases, assessment and action planning, have been previously described. 23 In summary, the assessment phase identified significant gaps in policy, education, and clinical standards available to support oral care in the 3 facilities. In the action planning phase, an interdisciplinary workshop resulted in an intervention plan to: address knowledge gaps, implement a strategy for daily oral care, ensure communication between researchers, decisionmakers and end-users, and evaluate the outcomes and processes.…”

“…In the action planning phase, an interdisciplinary workshop resulted in an intervention plan to: address knowledge gaps, implement a strategy for daily oral care, ensure communication between researchers, decisionmakers and end-users, and evaluate the outcomes and processes. 23 …”

“…23e25 Poor oral hygiene and rates of oral disease in LTC residents are escalating in tandem with 2 trends: the proportion of residents with advanced frailty and dementia is increasing 23,25,26 as is the proportion who are maintaining their natural teeth. 6,27,28 This creates a pressing need for LTC staff to be supported with appropriate care planning, education, and resources to identify and respond to residents' oral health needs.…”

“…The purpose of this qualitative research project was to respond to the need for an interdisciplinary approach to optimize daily mouth care for the benefit of dependent older adults through appropriate education, 34,37 personal mouth care resources and practices, 22,25,38 and organizational policy. 21,23,24 A collaborative team that involved researchers, practitioners, and decision-maker partners, 39,40 developed a comprehensive program to operationalize current best practices for daily mouth care 38,41,42 into both organizational policy and personal care practices in multiple LTC settings. This article describes the implementation of the program and addresses the research query, "What are the individual, organizational and system factors that need to be considered in developing and implementing a program to optimize the delivery of daily oral care in long-term care?…”