CNAs, when is the best time to get oral care done on a evening shift??

[marielina85]

Cnas when is the best time to get oral care done on a evening shift??How do ya do it?

[yousoldtheworld]

Depends. If the person is a shower, I just go ahead and do the oral care while I shower them. Otherwise, I just do it when I am getting them ready for bed - it's easier to do everything at once than to run room to room several times.

I have a lot of kids with trachs at work, though, and sometimes their mouths are already gross when I come to work. If so, I'll do oral care on them when I first get there and again at bedtime - they tend to get dry and crusty really easily.

[marielina85]

Depends. If the person is a shower, I just go ahead and do the oral care while I shower them. Otherwise, I just do it when I am getting them ready for bed - it's easier to do everything at once than to run room to room several times.

I have a lot of kids with trachs at work, though, and sometimes their mouths are already gross when I come to work. If so, I'll do oral care on them when I first get there and again at bedtime - they tend to get dry and crusty really easily.

oh okay thanks for replying.=)

[yousoldtheworld]

Another tip: If you have residents who are NPO (meaning they cannot take any food or drink by mouth) then you can't rinse their mouths with water. SO, on those residents, I do not use toothpaste. Can you imagine having toothpaste in your mouth all day because you can't rinse it? OMG.

On those residents, I use water and mouthwash for their oral care. It works just fine.

[Penny82]

At bed time. If they can do it themselves I set them up in front of the sink so I can help other residents at the same time. If not, I do it before I toilet them.

[CoffeemateCNA]

I do oral care when I put them to bed, UNLESS they are diabetic, in which case I wait until they get their blood glucose tested, their Lantus injection, and eat their snack that they get with it (since it's long-acting insulin) and THEN I do their oral care. For the diabetics that go to bed really early (and get woken up in a couple hours when it's time for their insulin and snack) I use an emesis basin and brush their teeth in bed so that I don't have to transfer them again.

[fuzzywuzzy, CNA]

I used to work 2nd shift and it depended on the person. If they could do it themselves I'd wheel them up to the sink and have them do it there after their HS care. Then I would move on to someone else and by the time I came back they'd be done. If they got a snack later on that night, I would have them do it in bed over an emesis basin and a towel either after they ate their snack or during my last bed check. With NPO people I swab their mouth every 2 hours when I reposition them.

[marielina85]

wow i wish I had all ya'll efficient people working with me=)....wat about patients that can't spit out the water????

[yousoldtheworld]

Read my post above about residents who cannot take water by mouth. :) I simply moisten the toothbrush (or ideally the little sponge swabs for oral care) with a bit of water and mouthwash and scrub with that.

Some aides use toothpaste on these residents, but if you've ever had a little toothpaste left in your mouth, I'm sure you know how terrible that tastes and even burns sometimes .