Oral care – identifying quality improvement areas

Abstract

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to describe and compare nurses’ and healthcare assistants’ oral care quality perceptions, including perceived reality (PR) and subjective importance (SI), to identify improvement areas in intensive care and short-term care, and to explore potential nursing satisfaction predictors regarding oral care. Design/methodology/approach Swedish staff, 154 within intensive care and 278 within short-term care responded to a modified quality of care from a patient perspective questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical statistics were used. Findings Staff scored oral care quality both high and low in relation to PR and SI. Improvement areas were identified, despite high satisfaction values regarding oral care. Setting, SI and PR explained 51.5 percent of the variance in staff satisfaction regarding oral care quality. Practical implications Quality improvements could guide oral care development. Originality/value This study describes oral care by comparing nurse perceptions of how important they perceive different oral care aspects and to what extent these oral care aspects are performed.