2023 Volume 44 Issue 2 Pages 180-186
It is well known that oral health care for children and patients in residential hospitals for persons with severe motor and intellectual disabilities (SMID) is important for their general health management. In many cases, daily oral health care of patients with SMID is performed by facility staff who are not dental professionals. Therefore, in this study, we investigated the awareness of facility staff regarding oral care, and examined the issues of oral hygiene instruction and oral health care.
The target of this questionnaire survey was 104 facility staff working at a rehabilitation center. The response rate to the questionnaire was 97.1％ (101 facility staff：45 nurses and 56 Ryouiku staff).
The proportion of nurses and Ryouiku staff with oral health care experience prior to employment was 82.2％ and 37.5％, respectively, showing that Ryouiku staff had significantly less experience. The Ryouiku staff spent significantly shorter time on oral health care than nurses；a significant number of nurses had problems with oral health care.
The nurses replied “lack of manpower” or “other work takes priority,” and other items related to the work environment. More than 90％ of the facility staff responded that they were aware of issues and difficulties in oral health care. Items of concern were “bad breath” and “general condition,” which the Ryouiku staff were significantly less concerned about. More than 95％ of the facility staff received oral health care instruction, and “mucous membrane exclusion” was significantly more common among nurses as a change after the instruction.
This questionnaire survey suggested that the oral hygiene instruction workshop at the time of employment contributes to changes in staff awareness, and that it is necessary to conduct oral hygiene instruction workshops on a regular basis to reduce differences in oral health care skills among staff.
