Denture care of in-patients

The attitude of nursing staff to the denture care of in-patients in hospital following the introduction of written guidelines on denture care was assessed together with the need for further guidelines. A survey in the form of a questionnaire was carried out on 100 nursing staff in a general hospital. The topics covered included usefulness of the guidelines and denture hygiene and general denture care procedures on the ward together with aspects of general denture care included in the nurse training programme. There was a 66% response rate. The results highlighted that the introduction of written guidelines were helpful to the nursing staff but additional training was requested. A computer-aided learning (CAL) programme on denture care aimed specifically at nursing was then developed. A total of 81 nursing staff were surveyed following the introduction of the CAL programme. The results demonstrated that the CAL programme was well received by 100% of the staff surveyed. Further work is to be undertaken on the development of an oral-health educational programme for nursing staff.