Dental hygiene education for nursing staff in a nursing home for older people.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study evaluating the effect of a repeated education programme for nursing staff in a home for older people. BACKGROUND: A strong relationship exists between oral infections and general health complications (especially aspiration pneumonia) among nursing home residents and hospitalized older people. Thus, nursing staff need to be educated in oral hygiene measures. METHODS: Forty-three nursing home resident older people (12 men, 31 women, age range 69-99 years) were included in a dental hygiene and gingivitis evaluation using gingival bleeding scores and modified plaque scores. Evaluation was conducted before and 3 weeks after a repeated dental hygiene education for nursing staff at a nursing home in Sweden in 2008. Dental hygiene education had been given 1.5 years previously. FINDINGS: Forty-one residents (12 men and 29 women) were available for evaluation after the repeated dental hygiene education (one died, one had had teeth extracted). There was a reduction in gingival bleeding scores (P < 0.001), and in plaque scores (P < 0.001). CONCLUSION: Repeated dental hygiene education improves the dental hygiene among nursing home resident older people. In order to succeed it may be necessary to address attitudes and perceptions towards oral care in such a dental hygiene education programme for nursing staff. Improved oral hygiene contributes to reducing the incidence of healthcare-associated pneumonia among nursing home resident older people, and thus to reduced healthcare costs.

Evaluation of dental hygiene education for nursing home staff.

AIM: This paper is a report of a study evaluating the long-term effects on the oral hygiene status of older nursing home residents one and a half years after dental hygiene education was given to the staff. BACKGROUND: A strong relationship exists between oral infections and general health complications (especially aspiration pneumonia) among nursing home residents and hospitalized older people. It is therefore important to educate nursing home staff in oral hygiene measures and to follow up the effects of the education over time. METHODS: Dental plaque measurements were conducted at a Swedish nursing home in 2006-2008. Forty-one residents (12 men, 31 women, aged 69-99 years) fulfilled the inclusion criteria and participated in a dental hygiene evaluation 1.5 years after dental hygiene education was given to the staff at the nursing home. Plaque index scores (year 2008) were compared to those soon after the education (year 2006). FINDINGS: After the dental hygiene education in 2006, 60 nursing home residents (14 men, 46 women) were available for plaque index measurements, whereas 41 residents (12 men, 29 women) were available 1.5 years later. The median plaque index scores were 17.0 (n = 60) in 2006, and 18.0 (n = 41) in 2008 (Mann-Whitney U-test, P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Dental hygiene education for nursing home staff is important to maintain an adequate level of oral hygiene among older nursing home residents over time. Follow-up of dental hygiene education for nursing home staff is recommended to maintain a sufficient level of oral hygiene among the residents.

A survey of attitudes and perceptions toward oral hygiene among staff at a geriatric nursing home.

The aim of this survey was to test the impact of an oral hygiene educational model on attitudes and perceptions toward oral hygiene among nursing home staff members. A pilot questionnaire was distributed to the nursing staff before and after a course on oral hygiene at a geriatric nursing home in Stockholm in 2008. The nursing staff was of the opinion that they had sufficient time to carry out oral hygiene tasks but considered such tasks unpleasant, mainly because of unwillingness and resistance from the residents. These attitudes and perceptions among the nursing staff did not change significantly after oral hygiene education. Future oral hygiene educational models need to be developed with an aim to alter the perceptions and behavior of the nursing home staff.

Dental hygiene education for nursing staff.

The aim of this study was to describe a new dental hygiene education program for nursing staff and to report experiences from the program at a nursing home in Stockholm, Sweden (2006). This strategy comprises 3 steps. The first is individual instruction for nursing staff about oral care for patients and hands-on training in toothbrushing technique using an electric toothbrush. The second step was small discussion groups of 4 to 8 nursing staff, led by a dental hygienist and a psychologist. The third step was a theoretical lecture focusing on the associations among dental hygiene, oral health, and general health among the elderly. During the dental hygiene education program, a negative attitude toward oral care was noted among members of the nursing staff, although they did consider oral care important for their patients. Increased self-confidence of staff in providing oral care was noted after completing the dental hygiene education program. Nursing staff members stated that they had received more detailed knowledge about oral care during the program. This dental hygiene education program appears to result in increased knowledge and interest in oral hygiene tasks among the nursing staff and may lead to improved dental hygiene among nursing home residents.

A mobile field-work data collection system for the wireless era of health surveillance.

In many countries or regions the capacity of health care resources is below the needs of the population and new approaches for health surveillance are needed. Innovative projects, utilizing wireless communication technology, contribute to reliable methods for field-work data collection and reporting to databases. The objective was to describe a new version of a wireless IT-support system for field-work data collection and administration. The system requirements were drawn from the design objective and translated to system functions. The system architecture was based on fieldwork experiences and administrative requirements. The Smartphone devices were HTC Touch Diamond2s, while the system was based on a platform with Microsoft .NET components, and a SQL Server 2005 with Microsoft Windows Server 2003 operating system. The user interfaces were based on .NET programming, and Microsoft Windows Mobile operating system. A synchronization module enabled download of field data to the database, via a General Packet Radio Services (GPRS) to a Local Area Network (LAN) interface. The field-workers considered the here-described applications user-friendly and almost self-instructing. The office administrators considered that the back-office interface facilitated retrieval of health reports and invoice distribution. The current IT-support system facilitates short lead times from fieldwork data registration to analysis, and is suitable for various applications. The advantages of wireless technology, and paper-free data administration need to be increasingly emphasized in development programs, in order to facilitate reliable and transparent use of limited resources.

An evidence-based oral hygiene education program for nursing staff.

Increasing evidence shows strong statistical correlations between improved oral hygiene and reduction in the incidence, and mortality, from health care-associated pneumonia among elderly. Therefore, it is important that nursing staff are well educated in oral hygiene. The objective was to describe the design of a new oral hygiene educational program for nursing staff, where the theoretical parts of the education were integrated with evidence about the preventive effect of improved oral care on respiratory tract infections and health care-associated pneumonia among hospitalized or nursing home resident older people. An educational model was translated into three educational steps: hands-on training, group discussions, and a theoretical lecture including scientific evidence about the preventive effect of oral hygiene on respiratory tract infections, and health care-associated pneumonia, among older people. Evidence-based oral hygiene education seems to be a feasible way to increase the motivation for daily oral care tasks among nursing staff, and thus to improve the oral hygiene status among the nursing home resident elderly. Further studies are, however, needed to further evaluate the effect of evidence-based oral hygiene educations in different health care settings and over longer time periods.

Need of assistance with daily oral hygiene measures among nursing home resident elderly versus the actual assistance received from the staff.

The aim was to evaluate the need of assistance with daily oral hygiene measures among nursing home resident elderly versus the actual assistance received from the staff. The need of daily oral hygiene assistance was assessed descriptively for nursing home resident elderly who participated in an annual oral health screening in three geographical regions in Sweden, in the year 2008. All individuals of age >/= 65 years were included (n = 22,453; 6,327 men; 16,126 women). The proportion of individuals in need of assistance with daily oral hygiene measures was 77.5 % (n=22,453), whereas the proportion of individuals receiving assistance with daily oral hygiene measures was 6.9 % in total (n=22,453). The proportions were largely similar in all geographical regions. There seems to be a large discrepancy between the need of assistance with daily oral hygiene measures, and the oral hygiene assistance received, among nursing home resident elderly.

A systematic review of the preventive effect of oral hygiene on pneumonia and respiratory tract infection in elderly people in hospitals and nursing homes: effect estimates and methodological quality of randomized controlled trials.

The objective of this study was to investigate the preventive effect of oral hygiene on pneumonia and respiratory tract infection, focusing on elderly people in hospitals and nursing homes, by systematically reviewing effect estimates and methodological quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and to provide an overview of additional clinical studies in this area. Literature searches were conducted in the Medline database, the Cochrane library databases, and by hand-searching reference lists. Included publications were analyzed for intervention (or topic) studied, main conclusions, strength of evidence, and study design. RCTs were further analyzed for effect magnitudes and methodological details. Absolute risk reductions (ARRs) and numbers needed to treat (NNTs) were calculated. Fifteen publications fulfilled the inclusion criteria. There was a wide variation in the design and quality of the studies included. The RCTs revealed positive preventive effects of oral hygiene on pneumonia and respiratory tract infection in hospitalized elderly people and elderly nursing home residents, with ARRs from 6.6% to 11.7% and NNTs from 8.6 to 15.3 individuals. The non-RCT studies contributed to inconclusive evidence on the association and correlation between oral hygiene and pneumonia or respiratory tract infection in elderly people. Mechanical oral hygiene has a preventive effect on mortality from pneumonia, and non-fatal pneumonia in hospitalized elderly people and elderly nursing home residents. Approximately one in 10 cases of death from pneumonia in elderly nursing home residents may be prevented by improving oral hygiene. Future research in this area should be focused on high-quality RCTs with appropriate sample size calculations.