The Necessity of Simulation Training in Providing Oral Care To Patients
Simulation training with a nursing manikin can help nurses-in-training to develop effective clinical skills in oral care. CAE Juno is a skills development patient manikin that offers training in this essential skill — and much more.
Learning to assist a patient who may be unable to perform daily oral hygiene rituals on their own is one of the chief fundamentals of clinical nursing training. Proper dental hygiene is as much a necessity for maintaining patient health as ensuring they take their medications or eat nutritionally-sound meals.
A healthy mouth prevents tooth loss and deters infections and diseases which may lead to severe systemic conditions. This is supported by recent research which has found a link between oral pathogens and hospital-acquired infections (with as many as 100,000 Americans suffering fatal consequences as a result of infections acquired in hospitals).
Patients need effective oral hygiene. Student nurses and others who find themselves providing crucial healthcare to an unconscious, disabled and/or critically ill patient should be properly trained in oral care measures to ensure adequate and proper patient care.
The CAE Juno nursing skills manikin allows for instruction and practice in proper oral care of patients and offers training in oral assessment procedures.
Learners may simulate initial patient assessment and determine the patient’s basic oral care needs. For example, CAE Juno can represent an unconscious patient and require a learner to be responsible for a wider range of care protocols (prevention of aspiration; adjusting the patient to allow for drainage; use of bedside suctioning; application of a tongue blade; cleansing of the tongue — or, not brushing the tongue if the patient is intubated).
Clinical trainees may also simulate procedural skills with CAE Juno, including everything from properly recording observations in the clinical record and reviewing patient history, to adhering to a formal oral assessment checklist and following proper techniques for bushing and rinsing.
To prevent infections or complications while caring for a patient unable to perform oral hygiene on himself (or herself), it is important for nurses to develop and practice proper oral care protocols. CAE Juno can assist.
