The relationship between knowledge about ventilator associated pneumonia and priority of oral care

The lack of enough oral care can expose patients to the risk of infection. Ventilator associated pneumonia is a nosocomial infection that is associated with aspiration of oropharyngeal content through passage around endotracheal tube. However, there are several oral care protocols and the association between poor oral hygiene and nosocomial infection has been showed, there is a little information about oral care procedures in intensive care units. To describe the relationship between knowledge about ventilator associated pneumonia and prioritization of oral care In Kerman University of Medical Sciences hospitals ICUs. In this descriptive analytical study, intensive care nurse’s knowledge about Ventilator Associated Pneumonia, prioritizes of oral care and using evidence based methods for oral care of 131 nurses were surveyed by questionnaire. Chi-square, fisher exact test, T-test, ANOVA, Man-Whitney U and Spearman’s correlation coefficient were used to analysis the data. 45.6 percent of participants have used evidence based methods for oral care. The mean score of knowledge about ventilator associated pneumonia transmission was 9. 92±3. 76. There was significant relationship between using evidence based oral care methods and type of hospital with knowledge about ventilator associated pneumonia. There was also significant relationship between oral care methods with past learning about oral care and type of learning. The relationship between priority of oral care and knowledge about oral care methods was significant. The results of this study showed that having knowledge about ventilator associated pneumonia is related with more prioritization to oral care and using evidence based oral care methods.