Impact of an Interventional Program on ICU Nurses' Practices toward Oral Care of Intubated Patients in Al-Diwaniya Teaching Hospital

Abstract

Oral care is vital nursing action when caring for intubated patients, that aims to reduce the mortality and morbidity among intensive care unit patients by preventing hospital-acquired infections such as Ventilator-associated pneumonia. However, oral care is neglected by the nursing staff in intensive care units, due to a lack of knowledge and practices. The study aimed to evaluate nursing staff's practices toward oral care of intubated and to determine the effectiveness of an interventional program on nursing staff's practices about oral care at ICU in Al Diwaniya Teaching Hospital, Iraq .Pre experimental (one group, pre/post test) design is used to conduct this study that starting from 26 September, 2020 to 1 May, 2021. The purposive sample used to select 27 from nursing staff working in ICU in Al Diwaniya Teaching Hospital. The study instrument is composed of two-part, a demographic data form, and a practice checklist that consists of 15 items to evaluate nurses' practices. The study revealed that there are poor practices among nursing staff regarding oral care in the pre-test period, where the overall evaluation of nurses' practices was low, with a statically mean (1.24). In the post-test, the study shows improvement in nursing staff' practices, and there are highly statistically significant differences between nurses' practice scores in pre and post-test, where the mean score of overall nurses' practices in post-test was (2.47). This indicates that the interventional program positively affects the nurses' practices regarding oral care of intubated patients. The study recommended the need to use the oral care protocol in ICUs and urged the nursing staff to participate in educational and training courses on oral care.