Oral Hygiene Care in Dependent or Cognitively Impaired Patients

Experienced nurses find ways of incorporating oral care into regular assessments – combining the two encourages performing the oral hygiene care and saves time. Dale, et al. (2016) quoted an un-named ICU administrator who commented, “I would hope that they are teaching (mouth care) in the critical care curriculum.” Stressing the importance of oral care early in the training of a new critical care nurse should help to solidify the inclusion of oral care into regular daily practice.

Healthy People initiatives are compilations of health topics and interventions for healthcare professionals to promote and improve quality of health nationally. These initiatives are science based and expand throughout 10 years. Healthy People 2020 is the current initiative and was initiated in December of 2010. This paper will discuss oral health promotion.

A dental hygiene diagnosis is used to identify areas of deficit that need attention. It is important to use critical thinking in order to develop a dental hygiene diagnosis within the scope of practice of dental hygiene. The dental hygiene diagnosis is based on the assessment of data from the medical history, dental chart, radiographs, periodontal chart, and twelve page assessment about the patient's dental hygiene care needs. These findings are important in order to plan and implement an effective dental hygiene treatment plan.

Henderson’s Need Theory stresses the importance of increasing the patient’s independence so that progress would not be delayed after hospitalization. She believed that a nurse’s job is not only to care for patients but also to ensure they will be able to take care of themselves when they leave the hospital (Ahtisham & Jacoline, 2015).

Nursing is the commitment to facilitate patient-centered care to maintain and achieve optimal health. Virginia Henderson accurately defines nurses’ integration of patients’ autonomy into care plans and assisting patients in activities to regain their independence. An ever-changing multidisciplinary team profession, an unyielding pledge to continuous education enables nurses to use the newest evidence-based practices for more efficient care. The underpinning and forerunner of patient care, nursing is representing patients, families, populations and communities through limitless advocacy.

odour, changes in voice and any difficulty or pain on swallowing. Assessing a patients should not only involve a nurse, but the member of the multidisciplinary team. The physiotherapy, dietitian, speech and language therapist, occupational therapist and the doctors involves in the patients care. Who all play an important role. A study was carried out by Horne et al (2014) to investigate the organisation, provision and practice of oral care in typical UK 11 stroke units; and explore stroke survivors’, carers’ and healthcare professionals’ experiences and perceptions about the barriers and facilitators to receiving and undertaking oral care in stroke unit. The senior nurse on each of the 11 stroke units completed and returned the questionnaire.

mouths and patients. As a dental assistant, it is important that we educate every patient that

The oral health perception among the general public, is assuming it is limited to the teeth. This perception has led to long term neglect of oral health and underutilization of dental policy. Oral health awareness can address this misconception and can educate the rural population about the importance of oral health, preventable oral cancers and improving the quality of life. Increasing the dental

Oral health is an important determinant of general health and quality of life. Oral health can affect people physically and psychologically. It can have adverse effects on growth, ability to taste food, eating habits, sleep, self-esteem, socialisation and enjoyment of life. Oral diseases have also been found to influence other chronic diseases due to common behavioural and biological pathways

Oral health care is known to be sub-optimal in nursing homes (NH) in Canada. Many residents have challenges to clean their teeth/dentures due to limited self care functioning. In most NHs, Health care aides (HCA) are responsible for providing daily oral care to residents. However, HCAs report having insufficient time/materials to perform oral care, resulting in ineffective cleaning and poor oral health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) is an organization that addresses unmet oral health needs of global populations in its pledge to better oral health as an integral part of general health. This organization has recognized profound oral health inequalities that in some cases are relatered to race or ethnicity, status, age, gender, social economic or general health status. In its main goal is to improve the oral health of underserved population for both developed and developing countries; and it works on developing strategies to identify risk groups and individuals, to modify risk behaviors such as poor oral hygiene, sugar intake, tobacco use, and excessive alcohol intake, and provide primary dental care and prevention. To facilitate the

There are a variety of factors that are known to affect patient compliance. Therefore, one cannot assess the patients overall oral health without taking a patients overall lifestyle, beliefs, attitude and dental IQ into account. It is important to assess the aforementioned because without taking them into account and addressing each patient on an individual basis, the patient will likely have a decrease in compliance while the patient’s disease state remains unchanged. A person’s beliefs and attitude are important because this indicates their frame of mind and what they perceive as their action and ownership of their mouth and condition. Based on the psychological theories a patient will fall into one of three main patient attitude models: 1. Health belief model (“states that for an individual to take action they have to believe they are susceptible to the disease, that the disease is serious, and the benefits of the following prescribed advice outweighs the costs.”) 2. The health locus control theory (“states that

Virginia Henderson stated “the nurse is temporarily the consciousness of the unconscious, . . . the leg of the amputee, the eyes of the newly blind” (Henderson, 2008, p.26). By saying this, Henderson was explaining how the nurse temporarily fulfills the functions of the patient when the patient is not capable of fulfilling these functions themselves. Henderson’s theory was comprised of fourteen activities that she thought the nurse was to help the patients perform. This theory has been applied to various types of nursing practice, such as childbirth education and organ donation after brain death. It can also be applied to the practice of a student nurse and an oncology nurse. Various health care professionals had influenced Henderson before she developed her concept. Since the original creation of her concept, Henderson reflected on differences that would be present in modern day (Henderson, 1991). Both Henderson’s original and more recent insights are applicable for numerous areas of practice.

The salient point in Henderson’s definition is describing the duty of a nurse as one that cares or assists an individual whether sick or well in obtaining a state of health in order to live an independent lifestyle (paraphrased). Henderson also described the independent and dependent role of nurses and the importance of a collaborative work with the other members of the multi-disciplinary health care team especially the doctors (Henderson, 1966). The Royal College of Nursing, on the other hand, described nursing as the utilization of clinical judgement in extending the care necessary for the people to maintain and achieve an optimum state of life throughout their lifetime (RCN, 2003). Other significant definitions of nursing were those given by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the American Nurses Association (ANA).

Nursing theorist Virginia Henderson (1897-1996), often referred to as the “First Lady of Nursing”, developed a nursing model based on the 14 components of activities of daily living. The paper discusses the importance of applying these components to the nursing practice. She emphasized the importance of increasing the patient’s independence so that progress after hospitalization would not be delayed (Henderson 1991). Henderson’s Theory and the main concepts are discussed using a case study approach on a specific client to better explore the theory and how it influenced the nursing practice. Henderson’s principles and practices of Nursing laid a ground work for