"Oral Health Care: from Special Focus to Weak or Missing" Experiences of Nursing Faculty Members in Teaching Oral Health to Students based on Undergraduate Nursing Curriculum: A Qualitative Study

Considering the role of nurses in promoting oral health and early identification of related problems and the importance of nursing students' education, this study aims to explain the experiences of nursing faculty members in teaching oral health to students based on the undergraduate nursing curriculum.

Methods & Materials: 

This qualitative study was conducted with conventional content analysis approach. Data were collected using 14 semi-structured, in-depth interviews and with 14 faculty member of nursing in Mashhad, Rafsanjan, Zabul, and Shiraz medical universities from 2021 to 2022. Data analysis was carried out simultaneously as they were collected using Elo and Kyngas method.

After the transcribing and reviewing the texts, 662 codes were extracted. after eliminating the repetitive themes, 6 themes and 19 categories were obtained. Themes include "attention to the importance of providing oral and dental care in theoretical-practical courses and nursing internships", "attention to the types of methods for evaluating the skills of providing oral and dental care", "oral health as one of the indicators of patient's health and recovery", "influence of rapid diagnosis and follow-up of oral and dental problems on the clinical process of the disease", "Patient's oral and dental health: on the edge of care", "Defects in the existing organizational and cultural structure in the organization of oral and dental nursing care". the central theme obtained from the data analysis is "Oral care in nursing curriculum: from special to weak or missing focus".

The faculty members considered oral health to be one of the indicators of patient's general health and recovery. The oral health of the clients is given special focus in some parts of the training, and in other parts it is weak or missing. The participants considered the oral health of the patients to be on the sidelines of care and considered the structural and cultural defects in the educational structure and hospitals, including the lack of interfaculty cooperation between the nursing and dental schools, as a factor in not providing efficient and basic oral care.