Hardy D L, Darby M L, Leinbach R M, Welliver M R
Caruth School of Dental Hygiene, Balor College of Dentistry, Dallas, Texas, USA.
J Dent Hyg. 1995 Mar-Apr;69(2):75-82.
The purpose of this investigation was to identify the oral healthcare role of nurses' aides in nursing homes. Nurses' aides were asked to report what preventive and referral oral health services they provided, factors that encourage and discourage performance of these services, and their perceived knowledge of oral hygiene care procedures.
A random sample of 40% (n = 14) of nursing home facilities in southeastern Virginia was selected. A 14-item questionnaire was administered to 121 nurses' aides employed at 11 of these nursing home facilities during April, May, and June of 1991. Frequency and percentages were analyzed for discrete, nominally, and ordinally scaled data.
Eleven of the 14 nursing homes selected agreed to participate, representing 32% of the nursing homes in the southeastern region of Virginia. Ninety-eight out of 121 questionnaires were completed and analyzed. Nurses' aides in nursing home facilities typically reported providing preventive oral health services such as mouthrinsing (71%), toothbrushing (63%), and denture cleaning procedures (37%) for nursing home residents. The majority of nurses' aides indicated that patient cooperativeness was a major factor that encouraged (71%) or discouraged (88%) the performance of oral health services. Aides typically reported suspicious and abnormal findings detected in residents' mouths to the nurse in charge of the shift (97 5). The majority of nurses' aides rated their knowledge of mouthrinses for residents with teeth (99%), denture cleaning (99%), toothbrushing (97%), fluoride mouthrinses for residences with teeth (90%), mouth checks for residents with teeth (91%), and flossing (61%) as adequate or excellent. However, a large percentage of nurses' aides rated their knowledge of saliva substitutes (45%) and flossing (39%) as poor.
This study indicated that nurses' aides generally provide daily oral hygiene services to nursing home residents. Thus, the role of the dental hygienist should be to outline specific educational and curricular guidelines and conduct training programs for nurses' aides and to develop instructional materials to be used in nursing homes. Future dental hygiene graduates must be prepared to meet the needs of oral hygiene education for nurses' aides.
本调查旨在确定疗养院中护工在口腔保健方面的作用。研究人员要求护工报告他们提供了哪些预防性和转诊性口腔保健服务、鼓励或阻碍这些服务实施的因素，以及他们对口腔卫生护理程序的认知情况。
从弗吉尼亚州东南部40%（n = 14）的疗养院中随机抽取样本。1991年4月、5月和6月期间，对这些疗养院中的11家雇佣的121名护工进行了一项包含14个项目的问卷调查。对离散型、名义型和有序型数据进行了频率和百分比分析。
所抽取的14家疗养院中有11家同意参与，占弗吉尼亚州东南部疗养院的32%。共完成并分析了121份问卷中的98份。疗养院的护工通常报告为疗养院居民提供预防性口腔保健服务，如漱口水（71%）、刷牙（63%）和假牙清洁程序（37%）。大多数护工表示，患者的配合是鼓励（71%）或阻碍（88%）口腔保健服务实施的主要因素。护工通常会将在居民口腔中发现的可疑和异常情况报告给当班护士（97.5%）。大多数护工认为他们对为有牙居民使用漱口水（99%）、假牙清洁（99%）、刷牙（97%）、为有牙居民使用含氟漱口水（90%）、为有牙居民进行口腔检查（91%）以及使用牙线（61%）的知识掌握程度为足够或优秀。然而，很大一部分护工认为他们对唾液替代品（45%）和使用牙线（39%）的知识掌握程度较差。
本研究表明，护工通常为疗养院居民提供日常口腔卫生服务。因此，牙科保健员的职责应是制定具体的教育和课程指南，为护工开展培训项目，并开发用于疗养院的教学材料。未来的牙科保健专业毕业生必须做好准备，以满足护工口腔卫生教育的需求。
