Development of an Oral Health Assessment Tool for Critically Ill Patients / 중환자간호학회지

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: This methodological study develops an oral health assessment tool for critically ill patients.METHOD: From February 15 to April 30, 2014, this study was conducted to test the validity and reliability of the tool at two general hospitals and three medical and surgical intensive care units (ICUs) in Seoul, Korea.RESULTS: The result of the intraclass correlation coefficient to test the between-observer reliability by analyzing the oral health assessment scores before and after oral nursing care showed that .93 of before oral care and .90 of after oral care. The correlation coefficient values of .68 (p < .001) and .71 (p < .001) before and after providing oral nursing care, respectively, indicated the presence of a statistically significant correlation between the tool and the criterion. Using the paired t-test, the differentiated validity of the tool was tested in patients who had developed pneumonia after entering the ICU. A statistically significant difference in scores was found between the time of entering the ICU and that of developing pneumonia (t=−8.73, p < .001), which provided evidence for the differentiated validity of the tool.CONCLUSION: Since the validity and reliability of the tool developed in this study were verified, this tool can be used to assess the oral health conditions of critically ill patients.