This study showed oral healthcare and nursing students' weak points regarding their attitudes and knowledge of oral health care at early stages. Oral health academic staff and professionals should develop effective oral healthcare curricula for oral healthcare students and help nursing staff develop a collaborative nursing oral healthcare curriculum to motivate nursing students.

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Objectives The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of interprofessional educational programmes on the improvement of nursing students' oral assessment performances by comparing their attitudes, confidence, abilities, and self‐performance before and after the education. Materials and methods The subjects included 112 first‐year nursing students in a Japanese nursing school. They participated in the oral assessment educational programmes, which were supported by dentists and introduced into the 1‐year curriculum. The first programme was a 1.5‐hr lecture with a self‐oral assessment training in May 2018, and the second was a 1‐hr oral assessment training in October 2018. The questionnaire surveys investigating nursing students' attitudes, confidence, and self‐performance regarding oral assessment and the tests measuring their oral assessment abilities were conducted before and after the programmes. The total scores on the tests were 0–9 points. Results A total of 101 (90.2%) nursing students responded to all the questionnaires and tests. Their attitudes and confidence regarding oral assessment were significantly improved after the programmes. The total average scores on the tests were significantly increased from 6.8 points at baseline to 7.9 points after the programmes. The percentage of their performance of self‐oral assessment every day significantly increased from 15.8% at baseline to 32.7% after the programmes. Conclusions These results suggested that the educational programme might be effective in improving not only the students' attitudes and confidence regarding oral assessment but also their oral assessment abilities and self‐oral assessment performance. Therefore, future programmes must focus on training them to improve oral health care referrals.

Aim: To investigate nursing faculty members' perceptions of oral care and to identify the effects of an educational environment on their perceptions. Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire regarding oral care was conducted at eight nursing schools in Japan. A total of 156 (71.6%) faculty members participated in this study. Their perceptions of oral care practice were compared by using a statistical analysis according to the length of work experience, teaching field, school, and facility setting (defined as whether the school had an affiliated hospital with a dental department). Results: Almost all of the faculty members were nurses and most were female. Almost all perceived that oral care was effective in the prevention of aspiration pneumonia and frailty. There were significant differences by teaching field in the nurses' perceptions regarding with whom they should collaborate to conduct oral care and there were significant differences by school in the nurses' perceptions regarding who should provide oral care, where it should be provided, and what kinds of knowledge are important for practice. Perceptions of low involvement in oral care were significantly associated with the schools having an affiliated university hospital with a dental department. Conclusion: There were different perceptions regarding oral care among nursing faculty members and their perceptions might have been affected by their educational environment. Therefore, it is suggested that oral care education should be standardized and nursing faculty members should standardize the curriculum regarding oral care for nursing students.

Objective: Collaborative oral health care among health-care workers (HCWs) is important to prevent oral and systemic diseases. The purpose of this study was to investigate the perceptions, attitudes and performance of HCWs regarding collaborative oral health care and to compare them among HCWs. Method: The subjects were dentists (DTs), dental hygienists (DHs), hospital nurses (HNs), speech-language-hearing therapists (STs) and certified care workers (CCWs) in Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan. DTs were members of the Fukuoka Dental Association, and DHs worked in dental clinics. HNs worked in hospitals without dental departments. STs and CCWs were members of professional associations. Data were collected by a mail survey. The chi-square test and Kruskal-Wallis test were used to compare the data among HCWs. Results: A total of 119 DTs, 91 DHs, 229 HNs, 119 STs and 121 CCWs participated in this study. The total response rate was 20.6%. There were significant differences in perceptions of what should be performed as part of oral health care among HCWs. Only 20%-60% of HCWs performed collaborative oral health care, while more than 75% were willing to perform such care. Levels of collaborative oral health care with other types of professionals and positive willingness to perform such care were lower among HNs than among the other HCWs. Conclusions: It is suggested that oral health professionals should recognise the presence of differences in the perceptions, attitudes and performance among other types of HCW and try to improve these to promote interprofessional collaboration of oral health care in hospitals.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the newly developed oral simulators with oral diseases and symptoms for nursing students’ oral assessment education to promote their collaboration with oral healthcare professionals after qualification. Methods: The participants were first-year students (n=105) at a nursing school in Japan. Ten oral simulators with angular cheilitis, missing teeth, dental caries, calculus, periodontitis, hypoglossal induration, food debris, and crust formation were created by a team of dentists. After a 45-minute lecture programme for oral assessment performance with the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT), the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT and the test feedback were conducted in a 30-minute practical programme. To evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes, questionnaire surveys regarding confidence and perceptions of oral assessment performance and ability tests with slides of oral images were conducted at baseline and after the programmes. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare their baseline survey results with their postprogramme results. Results: Ninety-nine students (94.3%) participated in this study. The results of the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT in the practical programme showed that the correct answer rates of assessing tongue, gingiva, present teeth, and oral pain were less than 40%. Their levels of confidence, perception, and ability of oral assessment performance were significantly higher after the programmes than they were at baseline (P<0.05). Their level of confidence in assessing the need for dental referral had the largest increase in scoring level from the lowest scoring level at baseline in the nine postprogramme assessment categories. Conclusions: This study identified several problems with nursing students’ oral assessment skills and showed that oral assessment education with simulators might be effective in improvingtheir oral assessment confidence, perceptions, and performance.