The Role of Nursing Personnel in Oral Care

According to in the 2000 Surgeon General’s report on oral health in America, nursing staff involvement in daily oral care for the hospitalized or institutionalized older adult is critical. Mouth care is frequently viewed as an unpleasant, tedious, time consuming task and is therefore relegated to nurse assistants. Nursing personnel in general receive very little oral health education during their educational preparation. Therefore, barriers to the provision of oral care by nursing staff include a lack of knowledge about oral disease and management, a perceived lack of time to provide oral care, and the perception that oral health care is less of a priority in the total scheme of duties they are responsible for rendering.44

Research has shown that educational in-service programs delivered by a dentist or dental hygienist to nursing staff of long-term care facilities result in minimal benefits to the resident population. However, when staff received training and support from other members of their staff, rather than oral health care practitioners, improvements in care were reported.69 In defense of the staff, turnover rates are extremely high in long-term care facilities and staff-to-patient ratios are often unrealistically high. Therefore, rewards must be in place to change behavior and make oral care an integral part of all residents’ treatment plan for nursing personnel.