Department of Nursing, Fukuoka Nursing College, 2-15-1 Tamura, Sawara-ku, Fukuoka, 814-0193, Japan.
Section of Geriatric Dentistry, Department of General Dentistry, Fukuoka Dental College, 2-15-1 Tamura, Sawara-ku, Fukuoka, 814-0193, Japan.
BMC Oral Health. 2020 Mar 12;20(1):68. doi: 10.1186/s12903-020-1058-0.
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.
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.
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.
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.
护士对住院患者的口腔评估和牙科转诊表现对于在医院提供适当的口腔护理服务非常重要。本研究旨在调查护士对住院患者口腔评估和转诊的知识、态度和表现，并确定与该表现相关的因素，以促进医院的口腔保健。
招募日本五家医院的所有护士（n=919）作为应答者。向每位医院的受试者分发了一份关于他们的口腔评估和牙科转诊表现的问卷。数据于 2018 年 8 月至 2018 年 9 月收集。
共有 757 名（82.4%）护士（82 名男性和 675 名女性）对问卷做出了回应。在 8 项口腔评估类别中，16.2%-41.2%的护士对超过 50%的住院患者进行了口腔评估，20.3%-29.9%的护士在过去 3 个月内鼓励超过一名住院患者看牙医。在对住院患者进行口腔评估方面，各病房和医院之间存在显著差异。此外，他们的口腔评估表现、口腔评估工具使用知识、病房和医院与他们的牙科转诊表现显著相关。
医院的口腔评估和转诊表现尚未充分发展。因此，口腔健康专业人员应为护士提供口腔评估教育，包括使用评估工具，以促进护士的牙科转诊。这些结果可能有助于促进护士的牙科转诊表现和口腔健康专业人员为医院住院患者提供口腔保健。
