An Investigation of Pediatric Nurses’ Oral Care Practices

Abstract

Oral care is a standard practice used to reduce ventilator-associated pneumonia in intensive care units and in the treatment of chemotherapy-induced oral mucositis. This research examines the oral care practices of pediatric nurses. Materials and Methods: This is a descriptive and cross-sectional study. Its sample was composed of 90 nurses working in the pediatric services of a university hospital in western Turkey from March to December 2016. The research data was collected using a sociodemographic data form and the Oral Care Practices Information Form. Results: Of the nurses, 62.2% had received oral care education. There were statistical differences in oral diagnosis in terms of clinic, work shift, the making of oral diagnoses before each oral care practice, oral care frequency and the number of patients with impaired oral mucosal integrity (p<0.05). Conclusion: Nurses need training about oral care that is up to date with the literature to manage oral care practices more effectively.

Oral Health Literacy Levels of Nursing Professionals and Effectiveness of Integrating Oral Health Training into Nursing Curricula: A Systematic Review

“…In addition to assessing the effect of integration of oral care practices into the training of nursing professionals, 12 studies reported on the general oral care practices of nursing professionals [4,44,46,55,57,61,[65][66][67][68][69][70]. In general, there was variability observed in nursing practices related to oral healthcare.…”

“…In general, there was variability observed in nursing practices related to oral healthcare. Five studies reported that nurses often used oral care solutions (saline, chlorhexidine, hydrogen peroxide solution, sodium bicarbonate solution, and distilled water/tap water) for mouthwash [4,44,57,65,70]. Various studies reported the use of foam swabs/swabbing (61-91.9%) [44,61], moisturizers (53-98.9%) [44,55], cotton/gauze swabs (69.9-93,5%) [55,61], saline (20-82.7%) [61,70], chlorhexidine (12.2-97.8%) [54,57,61,70], hydrogen peroxide solution (31.8%) [61], sodium bicarbonate solution (20.8-75.6%) [61,70], distilled water/tap water (4.3-17.9%) [55,61,70], mouthwash (57.8-88.2%) [55,70], toothbrushes (17.8-70%) [44,70], suction toothbrushes (93.5%) [55], and manual toothbrushes (49.5%) [55] for oral care.…”