An evaluation of the knowledge of pediatric nurses about the oral health status of newborns and pediatric oral health care

Abstract

Objective: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the knowledge of pediatric nurses about the oral health care of newborns and children.Methods: Seventy-one pediatric nurses working in newborn and pediatric units were recruited to the study. After receiving approval from the source and ethical committee, the survey questions were derived from the source of National Maternal and Child Oral Health Resource Center (OHRC) in Georgetown University and then translated into Turkish. The survey consists of demographic questions and 7 different categories of 48 questions related with oral health status of newborns and pediatric oral health care. The correct and wrong answers were recorded as “1” and “0” point for each question respectively. Total correct answers were calculated between 0-48 for each participant. The descriptive analysis and multiple linear regression model was used for statistical evaluations (p < .05).Results: The average of correct answers was found as 17.72 ± 6.5. According to the multiple linear regression model, all categories including the nurses’ knowledge (p < .001), educational status (p = .019), years of professional experience (p = .001) and their previous education on oral health care (p = .013) showed significant effects on the total amount of correct answers.Conclusions: The knowledge of the nurses regarding the oral health status of newborns and pediatric oral health care was found relatively low. The nurses’ low educational status, years of professional experience, and inadequate previous education on oral health care may be considered as risk factors for their lack of knowledge.