Why is oral care neglected in nursing education?

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - April 30, 2024 - PRLog -- The nursing staff lack knowledge about oral care

The care staff is officially trained to be able to take care of the citizen's entire body. But that is not the case.

There is no coordinated teaching in oral care on either the SSH/SSA or nursing programmes. The meager and haphazard teaching some individuals receive is often carried out by non-dental care professionals. Which is equivalent to letting an occupational therapist teach wound care, which they are not trained for either.

Therefore, the care staff lack the necessary training and knowledge, and they also lack working procedures at their workplaces.

• They do not have a chance to know how to brush their teeth based on the individual needs of the citizen.
• They do not know what to look out for and how to check whether the brushing is good enough.
• They don't know what to do if their gums bleed.
• And they also do not know that in the vast majority of cases they themselves can both prevent and treat diseases in the mouth.

Therefore, tooth brushing is often done haphazardly, and many problems and diseases in the mouth are overlooked.

Visit http://denglademund.dk/2023-06-14-pressemeddelelse for details