Promotion of Health Status of the Oral Cavity in Surgical Intensive Care Unit Patients

Wednesday, 9 July 2008
Ming-Chu Wu, RN, MSN , Department of Nursing, Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taipei, AP, Taiwan

Learning Objective 1: The purpose of this project was to improve health status of the oral cavity of patients with oral endotracheal tube in surgical intensive care unit.

Learning Objective 2: The results indicated that the health status of surgical ICU patients with OET from 39.83% to 64.46%.

Oral health is an important indicator and measurement of health-related quality of life.The purpose of this project was to improve health status of the oral cavity of patients with oral endotracheal tube in surgical intensive care unit. After clinical analysis, the health status of the oral cavity rate was only 39.83%. Insufficient instruction often affected the quality of protocol. In order to resolve the problems, Real observations for 115 times on the health status of those patients were performed to collect data during oral cavity care providing by nurses. Based on the PDCA method, Baseline data on the participants' demographic characteristics, and were obtained with the use of a standard protocol. We use the scoring system "Scores of Health Status of the Oral Cavity in patients with Endotracheal Tube", The instrument Cronbach's alpha 0.83, and the index of content validity(CVI)0.89. which is established and evaluatly used in CGMH to evaluat the health status of oral care in patients with OET in surgical ICU.The follow-up evaluation was conducted the researcher applied observation, with a follow-up of 35 patients. The project include from surgical ICU with four inclusion criteria.Data were analyzed using SPSS 11.0 statistical computer software. Descriptive and influential data analysis were employed with t-test.The results indicated that the health status of surgical ICU patients with OET from 39.83% to 64.46%.Moreover, the nurses recognition of the scoring system improved from 0% to 100%, and completeness of nursing protocol of oral nursing care performed by nurses increased from 0% to 97.75%. The goals of the project were successfully achieved. The quality of patient care could also be improved.This project can explore the effectiveness of health status of the oral cavity of patients with OET in surgical.