Mouth Care

[Kitsey]

Hi guys, I've just finished my 3 week orientation at a LTCF. Since I joined this forum long before my class, I knew well ahead of time that class and work would be *very* different so a lot of things didn't surprise me. One thing I am wondering about though is the lack of mouth care for HS cares. I work second shift and have been in all 5 areas of my facility, and I rarely saw anyone do any mouth care. I've worked with almost all of the @100 residents as an orientee, and I can only recall mouthcare being done on 4 of those people. Is that normally something CNAs don't even bother with?

[caliotter3]

I never saw it done when I was a CNA, and when I decided to make an honest effort to start doing it myself, I only got so far, but I did the best I could. There really is only so much you can do when you are always running behind and yet again you're working one or more caregivers short.

[northernguy]

Obviously working short staffed would change a lot, but I dont have that problem where I work, since we are always fully staffed(which means we have to stay for a second consecutive shift fairly frequently). Its just been ingrained in me where I work that not helping them brush their teeth or dentures, or not leaving them soaking at night is a big no no. Oddly there are only a few where I work that consistently resist it, and none that absolutely wont allow you to do it, although there are a few that make it pretty time consuming or require significant coaxing.

[nicu/nurse]

It is true, a big problem with compliance of oral care is due to lack of resources. In cases like this, having a kit, at the patients bedside would dramatically increase compliance. :) Attached is a link to the kits we use.

http://trademarkmedical.com/pro/pro-patient-oralcareswabs.html