Abstract
Background: New Zealand (NZ) has almost 58,206 registered nurses who are involved in the care of patients. One group of which are elderly patients being cared for at home or in aged care facilities. Maintenance of oral health and prevention of deterioration in oral health can prevent life‐threatening infections and provide greater function and comfort for the older population. Therefore, the aim of this review was to investigate the need for oral health education both theory and practice in nursing curricula in NZ.
Methods: A narrative review was conducted following the scale for the quality assessment of narrative review articles (SANRA). A broad literature search was conducted in Medline, Pubmed, Web of Science and Ovid, Scopus, Index New Zealand, Science Direct, Proquest, Proquest Dissertation and Thesis, the Cochrane Library and major health organisation websites. The themes were generated to identify issues requiring a need for oral health education in NZ.
Results: The literature review identified 11 problems which necessitates the need for the oral health care education in nursing curriculum.
Conclusion: It is concluded that the increased economic burden in older adult care, the increased need for oral health care for elderly populations and increasing treatment needs among the older population demand more sophisticated oral care for the hospitalised elderly population and those in residential care. The inclusion of an elderly oral health care education module into the undergraduate nursing curriculum could improve the oral health outcome of the elderly population.