Development of an index to measure oral health care priority among nursing staff

To develop an index to measure oral health care priority among nursing staff.

Nursing staff, working on hospital wards, at nursing homes and at other facilities, have to deal with oral health care and there are many reports about the low priority that is given to oral health care by nursing staff. It is difficult to measure oral health care priority among nursing staff. A Dental Coping Beliefs Scale (DCBS) index was used in an intervention study and was found to be easy to handle but did not have the ability to reveal significant differences in small study samples. A development process consisting of added items and item numbering by chance was carried out. During this process, different nursing staff test groups were used. The aim was to develop an oral health care priority index that can be used both on hospital wards and at special facilities to measure oral health care priority among nursing staff over time and between groups.

Nursing staff at both special facilities and hospital wards and nursing students.

It was found that the index, the nursing DCBS, was more stable compared with the version that was used in the initial intervention study. It was also noted that its ability to discriminate between the items was improved.

The nursing DCBS index is a suitable tool for use in further studies where the aim is to measure how different nursing staff groups give priority to and allocate responsibility for oral health care, even where study samples are small.