Current status and future prospects for oral care education in Bachelor of Nursing curriculums: A Japanese cross‐sectional study

Abstract

Objective: This study sought to investigate the current status and faculty members' perceptions of oral care education in Bachelor of Nursing curriculums in Japan.Method: Data were gathered through a questionnaire survey of 196 participants, who were faculty members in charge of oral care education in the basic, adult, gerontological, and home nursing fields, from 295 nursing schools that offered Bachelor degrees in nursing across Japan. Results: The quantitative data showed that 38.5% of the participants worked for less than 5 years as oral care educators, only 15.5% taught oral care in perioperative wards, only 62.2% used an oral care training simulator, and less than 30% believed that training in the prevention of oral diseases should be enhanced. From the descriptive responses, this study identified such problems as the inability of students to perform student-on-student and patient-based oral care training owing to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and the lack of teaching materials, time, and human resources, and cooperation with other nursing fields and health professionals.Conclusions: This study revealed several problems in oral care education in the Bachelor of Nursing curriculums in Japan. To tackle these challenges, this study suggests the development of an interdisciplinary course that unifies oral care education in nursing fields, in order to promote collaborative oral care education and to improve nursing students' knowledge and skills of oral care.

Impact of oral health management by nurses and dental professionals on oral health status in inpatients eligible for the Nutrition Support Team: A longitudinal study

“…[19][20][21] Furthermore, it is clear that the curricula used for training nurses do not provide sufficient education in oral health management. [22][23][24] Therefore, proper training in oral health management is an unmet need in this profession. 20,21,25 A previous study reported that oral health management provided by nurses, based on a simple protocol including twice-daily tooth brushing and mouthwash after lunch, improved the oral health of patients with subacute stroke in a short period of time.…”

“…[19][20][21] In fact, it has been reported that there is a lack of content related to oral health in nursing education programs. [22][23][24] Thus, many nurses may need the instruction from dental professionals to properly conduct oral health management. 20,21,25 From the viewpoint of standardisation and equalisation of health care, dental professionals should instruct nurses on oral health management.…”

“…Although many nurses recognise the importance of oral health management, they may have difficulty implementing it due to a lack of specific knowledge 19–21 . In fact, it has been reported that there is a lack of content related to oral health in nursing education programs 22–24 . Thus, many nurses may need the instruction from dental professionals to properly conduct oral health management 20,21,25 .…”

Development of oral simulators with oral diseases and symptoms for nursing oral assessment education

“…However, most students might have no severe dental diseases or symptoms in the present study. In addition, a recent study regarding nursing education reported that student-on-student training could not be conducted at nursing schools, including the investigated school, owing to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission [13]. Therefore, it is suggested that oral assessment programmes with oral simulators may be more effective and useful for assessing oral diseases than student-on-student training under the current situation amid the spread of COVID-19.…”

“…However, some studies reported that nurses had limited oral healthcare knowledge and inadequate understanding of the crucial elements of an oral health assessment [11,12]. In addition, a recent study reported that nursing students could not perform student-on-student and patient-based training in oral assessment and healthcare owing to the risk of SARS-CoV-2 transmission [13]. This problem may have a negative impact on nursing students' oral assessment performance and collaboration with oral healthcare professionals after their quali cation.…”