Nurses’ oral assessment and dental referral performance for inpatients are important to provide appropriate oral care services in hospitals. The purpose of this study was to investigate the knowledge, attitudes, and performance of oral assessments and dental referrals for their inpatients among nurses and to identify factors associated with that performance to promote oral health care in hospitals. All nurses (n = 919) who worked at five hospitals in Japan were recruited as responders. A questionnaire regarding their performance of oral assessments and dental referrals was distributed to the subjects in each hospital. The data were collected from August 2018 to September 2018. A total of 757 (82.4%) nurses (82 males and 675 females) responded to the questionnaire. With respect to each of the 8 oral assessment categories, 16.2–41.2% of the nurses performed oral assessments for more than 50% of their inpatients, and 20.3–29.9% had encouraged more than one inpatient to see a dentist within the previous 3 months. Significant differences were found by ward and hospital in their performance of oral assessments for inpatients. Additionally, their oral assessment performance, knowledge of the usage of oral assessment tools, wards, and hospitals were significantly associated with their dental referral performance. The performance of oral assessment and dental referral was not developed sufficiently in the hospitals. Thus, oral health professionals should support oral assessment education for nurses, including usage of assessment tools, to promote dental referral by nurses. These results may contribute to promotion of dental referral performance by nurses and provision of oral health care by oral health professionals for hospital inpatients.

中文翻译：

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与护士对医院住院病人进行口头评估和转诊相关的因素。

护士对患者的口腔评估和牙科转诊表现对于在医院提供适当的口腔护理服务很重要。这项研究的目的是调查护士对住院患者进行口腔评估和转诊的知识，态度和表现，并找出与该表现相关的因素以促进医院的口腔保健。招募了在日本五家医院工作的所有护士（n = 919）作为响应者。向每家医院的受试者分发了有关其口头评估和牙科转诊表现的问卷。数据收集自2018年8月至2018年9月。共有757名（82.4％）护士（82名男性和675名女性）回复了问卷。对于8个口头评估类别中的每一个，16.2–41。2％的护士对超过50％的住院患者进行了口头评估，而20.3–29.9％的护士在过去3个月内鼓励了多于一名住院患者去看牙医。病房和医院对住院病人进行口头评估的表现存在显着差异。此外，他们的口头评估表现，对口头评估工具使用知识，病房和医院的了解与他们的转诊表现显着相关。医院没有进行充分的口头评估和转诊工作。因此，口腔保健专业人员应支持对护士的口腔评估教育，包括使用评估工具，以促进护士进行牙科转诊。