Natalie Archer
Birmingham Community NHS Foundation NHS Trust, United Kingdom
Title: Oral health education for community nurses: identified need for further training
Biography
Biography: Natalie Archer
Abstract
Oral health knowledge is fundamental to ensure nurses are able to achieve holistic patient care. During the COVID-19 pandemic, dentists were redeployed to community nursing teams to support wider healthcare service demands, where oral health knowledge deficits were observed. Community nursing teams often care for vulnerable medically compromised patient groups who have increased oral health needs, including oncology, palliative and diabetic patients.
To understand the extent of the interdiciplinary knowledge barrier, a training needs anaylsis was distributed which confirmed the findings that had been observed on the frontline. From the respondents(n=132), 68%(n=90) of nurses had never had any oral health training, and of those that had, less than one-third had this at an undergraduate level. 90%(n=119) of nurses had seen a patient who demonstrated oral health concerns, and were mainly managed through general medical practitioners rather than liaising with local dental services. 86%(n=114) agreed that mouthcare is essential for patient care. 56%(n=74) of nurses felt that lack of training was a barrier to providing oral care, alongside other barriers of lack of equipment and time. 92%(n=121) of nurses felt they would benefit from further training in mouth care, assessing the mouth and awareness of common oral conditions.
These results have identified a need for improved education for nurses and undergraduate and post-graduate level, to ensure nurses are supported to identify oral health concerns and complete onward referrals where appropriate. Utilising redeployment opportunities can encourage shared learning experiences to promote improved quality of healthcare delivery through collaboration.