TITLE:
Nurses’ Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Oral Care for Intensive Care Unit Patients
AUTHORS:
Sara Mohamed Ibrahim, Amal Mohamed Mudawi, Osama Omer
KEYWORDS:
Oral Health, Intensive Care Unit, Nurses’ Knowledge
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Stomatology,
Vol.5 No.7,
July
15,
2015
ABSTRACT: The aim of this study was to describe the intensive care unit (ICU) nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and practice of mouth care for their patients. This is a cross sectional hospital based study. A total of 154 ICU nurses were randomly selected from seven governmental hospitals in Khartoum state and were invited to take part in this study. 97.4% of ICU nurses had high knowledge of the importance of mouth care for ICU patients and similarly for the priority of mouth care. However, only 20% of nurses were found to apply good practice. 64.5% of the nurses received training in mouth care provision, and (81%) indicated that further training would be beneficial. The oral care practice of ICU nurses ranged between average among 57% and poor among 23%. The study highlighted the need for setting of ICU protocols and adoption of advanced training for ICU nurses.