Oral health promotion, among institutionalized people, delivered by caregivers

Introduction: Herzog Hospital is Israel's foremost center for geriatric and psychiatric health care. There is scarce experience regarding the improvement of oral health for chronic non-collaborative hospital patients, as delivered by hospital nursing staff. Objectives: Evaluation of oral health promotion for institutionalized people, in the Jerusalem Herzog hospital, by education of their care givers. Methods: There are about 170 nursing care givers in this hospital. The oral health promotion program included a survey of the hospitalized patients, observations of caregivers' oral health care, and a feedback questionnaire, before and after finishing the program. The questionnaire was prepared specifically for this study and was based on primary observations. The intervention included a one hour lecture and individual instruction for the nursing staff. Data were collected, coded and analyzed with SPSS 16 software. Results: The results show a positive change in knowledge and attitudes of the staff after the intervention program. Caregivers reported an increase in adequate knowledge regarding oral care for their hospitalized patients from 55.6% before the intervention, to 75% after the intervention (p<0.01). They also reported an increase in the possession of skills required to provide oral care, from 64% to 83% (p<0.01). Conclusions: Development of an appropriate oral health promotion strategy among hospital caregivers is needed and may potentially be successful, as shown in this pilot demonstration project.