Factors associated with nurses’ performance of oral assessments and dental referrals for hospital inpatients

Abstract

Background: Nurses' oral assessment and dental referral performance for inpatients are important to provide appropriate oral care services in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and performance of oral assessments and dental referrals for their inpatients among nurses and to identify factors associated with that performance to promote oral health care in hospitals. Methods: All nurses (n = 919) who worked at five hospitals in Japan were recruited as responders. A questionnaire regarding their performance of oral assessments and dental referrals was distributed to the subjects in each hospital. The data were collected from August 2018 to September 2018. Results: A total of 757 (82.4%) nurses (82 males and 675 females) responded to the questionnaire. With respect to each of the 8 oral assessment categories, 16.2-41.2% of the nurses performed oral assessments for more than 50% of their inpatients, and 20.3-29.9% had encouraged more than one inpatient to see a dentist within the previous 3 months. Significant differences were found by ward and hospital in their performance of oral assessments for inpatients. Additionally, their oral assessment performance, knowledge of the usage of oral assessment tools, wards, and hospitals were significantly associated with their dental referral performance. Conclusions: The performance of oral assessment and dental referral was not developed sufficiently in the hospitals. Thus, oral health professionals should support oral assessment education for nurses, including usage of assessment tools, to promote dental referral by nurses. These results may contribute to promotion of dental referral performance by nurses and provision of oral health care by oral health professionals for hospital inpatients.

Comparison of attitudes, awareness, and perceptions regarding oral healthcare between dental and nursing students before and after oral healthcare education

“…Physicians and nurses play the main roles in providing healthcare, including oral healthcare for patients in hospitals, older adult patients in long-term care facilities, and community-dwelling older adult patients [ 8 – 15 , 32 ]. Furthermore, nurses can also encourage patients to undergo dental treatments and receive care from oral health professionals [ 33 , 34 ]. Therefore, it is suggested that dental students should perceive the importance of collaborating with health professionals in oral healthcare practice post-qualification.…”

The role of knowledge and self‐efficacy on dental consultation behavior of patients with type 2 diabetes

“…As periodontal disease may not be diagnosed in medical settings without a dentistry department, medical‐dental collaboration is necessary. In a medical setting where nurses provide oral care for inpatients, nurses are supposed to assess outpatients' oral conditions and encourage physicians to cooperate with dentists as appropriate (8020 Promotion Foundation, 2009; Haresaku et al, 2020). Although nurses may understand the necessity of oral care for patients, nurses still lack knowledge and experience in this area (Costello & Coyne, 2008).…”

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

“…In Japan, the use of oral assessment tools by nurses was not widespread [11], and less than one-fourth of nursing schools in Japan conducted oral assessment education with the tools [29]. Therefore, it is suggested that oral healthcare professionals should support nursing assessment education to promote the students' ability to correctly assess dental diseases and symptoms, make dental referrals, and provide collaborative oral healthcare with oral healthcare professionals.…”

“…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].…”