Aims: To investigate fundamental care delivery regarding oral care in a surgical context, and to compare patients' self-reported oral health with registered nurse assessments.
Design: A descriptive and comparative study, with a consecutive selection.
Methods: A patient oral health rating tool, including questions about performed oral care, was distributed to patients (n = 50), at four surgical wards in Sweden. The response rate was 72%. Oral health status was assessed by a registered nurse using the Revised Oral Assessment Guide (ROAG), and a comparison between patient and registered nurse assessment was performed by calculating Cohen's kappa coefficient and percentage agreement.
Results: Patients (38%) reported severe oral symptoms, mostly dry lips and not an adequate amount of saliva, and 80% were not offered help with oral care. ROAG assessments revealed that 74% had problems with oral health. Almost half of the patients (48%) needed assistance with oral care but only 10% received help. Registered nurses assessed the patient's oral health as worse than the patient's self-assessment did.
Conclusion: There are deficiencies in fundamental care delivery regarding oral care in a surgical care context. Oral health assessments need to be performed by registered nurses. Routines for systematic oral assessments and for oral care need to be implemented by nurse managers to ensure that patients' fundamental care needs are fulfilled.
Implications for the profession and patient care: Oral health assessments need to be performed regularly by registered nurses since it is insufficient that patients self-assess their oral health. Nurse managers need to provide and implement routines for nurse assessments and oral care in surgical care contexts.
Impact: There are deficiencies in patients' oral health and oral care, and registered nurses need to perform oral health assessments. Nurse managers need to implement routines for registered nurse assessments and oral care.
Patient contribution: Patients admitted to a surgical ward were included in the study after being screened for inclusion criteria. After participants signed informed consent, they filled in a questionnaire about oral health and oral care, and a registered nurse performed an oral health assessment.
Reporting method: This study was carried out according to the STROBE checklist.
Keywords: fundamental care; missed nursing care; nurse management; oral care; oral health; quantitative method.
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Clinical Nursing published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.