Oral Hygiene Care in Dependent or Cognitively Impaired Patients

As a nurse in a skilled nursing facility, oral hygiene care is very important, but the importance significantly increases when our patients are functionally dependent or cognitively impaired. These patients are unable to perform this task and depend on nurses to provide daily care. Nurses need to pay close attention for potential problems. They will need to perform assessments, develop oral care plans, and identify preventions and strategies to eliminate any potential problems. Poor oral health has been linked to serious systemic illnesses including diabetes mellitus, stroke, hypertension, myocardial infarction and aspiration pneumonia (Dyck et al., 2012). Patients who suffer from a lack of oral care can have a dramatic impact to their lives emotionally, mentally, physically as well as socially. With persistent and effective daily assessment and care from nurses, we can get help to get this problem under control.

Assessment and prevention are key nursing steps in eliminating potential problems. There are many tools that will assist nurses assessing patient’s oral health, included are Minimum Data Set and Resident Assessment protocols. These tools will help with determining the need for consultation and referral. Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT) is another tool that will help nurses develop a care plan individualized to patient’s needs. This paper will investigate an oral hygiene care guideline by comparing recommendations in the guideline to current nursing research. The aspects of the guideline that will be evaluated focuses on risk factors, assessment, development of oral care plan and prevention and strategies.

Guideline: Oral Hygiene Care for Functionally Dependent and Cognitively Impaired Older Adults.

There a...

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... One of the gaps found in the literature comes from article titled “Improving oral care practice in long-term care.” The article states that they still used sponge swabs although the type (lemon glycerin) is not stated. The other gap in literature comes from article “Staff-led interventions for improving oral hygiene in patients following stroke.” Although 470 participated in the trial, the findings were inconclusive.

C. The biggest area for future research needs to focus on the facility and its protocol as to whether or not one is in place and if so, how many staff members are following the protocol properly.

Works Cited

Blais, K., & Hayes, J. (2011). Professional Nursing Practice. (6 ed.). Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education.

JUSON. (2012). School of Nursing Philosophy. Retrieved from https://www.ju.edu/COHS/Pages/Prospective-Students.aspx