About the Improving Mouth Care programme
Improving Mouth Care is an elearning package to support the training of all healthcare professionals involved in mouth care. This free resource developed by Health Education Thames Valley and Wessex introduces the basics of oral health care. It has been designed to give health and care staff advice and guidance in order for them to provide evidenced based mouth care for their patients and clients; with the intention of ensuring that they can enjoy the benefits of good oral hygiene and oral health as part of general health care.
Why is oral health care important?
Oral diseases are among the most common non-communicable diseases in the UK and worldwide, despite being largely preventable. Oral health is an important part of general health and wellbeing. It allows people to eat, speak and socialise without discomfort or embarrassment. Numerous studies have shown links between poor oral health and diabetes, stroke, heart disease, lung disease and dementia. Poor dental function also results in a lower intake of nutritious food, more intestinal problems, increased drug intake and ultimately a lower life expectancy. Dental pain and infection impair cognitive function which may already be reduced in adults with a learning disability or elderly people, especially those who have dementia. Aspiration pneumonia is the fourth overall leading cause of death in hospitals. Many cases of bacterial pneumonia are caused by bacteria from the mouth or throat. Effective mouth care will help to reduce the number of bacteria retained in the mouth and studies have shown a decrease in the incidence of hospital and care home acquired pneumonias as a result.
The aims of Improving Mouth Care are to:
- Improve understanding of the importance of oral health and the causes of poor oral health
- Show how to check a mouth, follow a mouth care plan and what it may include
- Provide up to date information on techniques and products for effective mouth care
- Show how to make an oral health needs assessment for each individual using a dedicated assessment tool
- Recognise when to escalate a problem and how to refer to a dentist if necessary
- Show how to keep good records
There are 3 sessions:
- Introducing mouth care – Aimed at first year pre-registration nurses and care staff working in the community. This session has simple, retainable advice on mouth care with guidance suitable for Health Care Assistants.
- Mouth care for adults – Aimed at providing additional material for nurses responsible for assessment and care planning, covering systemic diseases and extended content on how to support individuals with dementia or diminished capacity.
- Mouth care for people with additional needs – suitable for staff looking after people with more challenging oral health issues and/or behaviour that makes mouth care difficult.
The format for each session includes pictures and videos with additional links to evidence and further reading. All three sessions have an assessment with a pass mark of 80%.
More information
This resource is patient centred, and is mapped to Care Quality Commission standards. It also follows best practice as part of Essence of Care and NICE guidance. All the recommendations are based on “Delivering Better Oral Health – An evidence-based toolkit for prevention” – 3rd edition by Department of Health and the British Association for the Study of Community Dentistry, published June 2014.
How Oral Health links in to the Care Quality Commission standards
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Safe
Safe
- The setting offers mouth care in order to prevent the impact of poor oral health, particularly aspiration pneumonia
- The setting uses an oral health assessment, mouth care plan and has a method for recording mouth care
- There is appropriate care planning and correct product use for individuals
- The staff are aware of safety alerts (e.g. oral swab with foam heads, Chlorhexidine)
- The staff are aware of infection prevention control in delivering oral care
- The setting offers mouth care in order to prevent the impact of poor oral health, particularly aspiration pneumonia
- The setting uses an oral health assessment, mouth care plan and has a method for recording mouth care
- There is appropriate care planning and correct product use for individuals
- The staff are aware of safety alerts (e.g. oral swab with foam heads, Chlorhexidine)
- The staff are aware of infection prevention control in delivering oral care
-
Effective
Effective
- There are individual mouth care plans that meet the client’s individual needs
- The person is given support with their mouth care by confident, skilled staff
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Caring
Caring
- Mouth care is delivered in a caring and dignified way by skilled staff
- There is increased mouth care for those at high risk
- There is provision and encouragement of tooth friendly food choices
- There is a whole setting approach to oral health
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Responsive
Responsive
- There are individual oral health assessments to identify client’s specific needs
- There is tailored care planning to meet client’s individual needs
- The setting delivers person centred mouth care using techniques and approaches suitable for the individual
- Where possible, the setting supports and encourages clients to maintain independent mouth care
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Well led
Well led
- There is strategic leadership from the manager to implement an oral health promoting environment
- The manager encourages a positive oral health approach and leads good oral health practice by example
- The manager participates in training and actively supports the development of staff
- The staff communicate with each other regarding the oral health needs of their clients, for example with clear documentation and partnership working
Meet the team
- Gill Mather – Dental Therapist/DCP Tutor, Health Education Thames Valley and Health Education Wessex
- Katy Kerr – Oral Health Improvement Co-ordinator, Health Education Thames Valley and Health Education Wessex
How to access
In order to access the Improving Mouth Care programme, you will need an elfh account. If you do not have one, then you can register by selecting the Register button below.
To view the Improving Mouth Care programme, select the View button below. If you already have an account with elfh, you will also be able to login and enrol on the programme from the View button.
Access for care home or hospice staff
To register for the Improving Mouth Care programme, select the ‘Register’ button above. Select the option ‘I am a care home or hospice worker’ then enter your care home / hospice name or postcode and select it from the options available in the drop down list. Finally enter your care home / hospice registration code and select ‘Register’. You may need to see your employer to get this code.
If your employer does not have a code, then they need to contact the elfh Support Team. The Support Team can either give the employer the Registration Code or arrange a bulk upload of all staff.
Access for social care professionals
Access to elfh content is available to all social care professionals in England whose employers are registered with the Skills for Care National Minimum Data Set for Social Care (NMDS-SC). Every employer providing NMDS-SC workforce information to Skills for Care has been given a user registration code for their staff. This code enables you to self-register for access to the Improving Mouth Care programme. Please contact your employer for more details about the registration code. For information about registering your organisation with the NMDS-SC your employer should access www.nmds-sc-online.org.uk or contact the Skills for Care Support Service on 0845 8730129.
If you have a registration code select the ‘register’ button above
NHS healthcare staff in England
The Improving Mouth Care programme is also available to NHS healthcare staff via the Electronic Staff Record (ESR). Accessing this elearning via ESR means that your completions will transfer with you throughout your NHS career.
Further details are available here.
Not an NHS organisation?
If you are not an NHS health or care organisation and therefore do not qualify for free access elfh Hub, you may be able to access the service by creating an OpenAthens account.
To check whether or not you qualify for free access via OpenAthens, you can view the eligibility criteria and register on the ‘OpenAthens’ portal.
Registering large numbers of users
If you are a HR, IT or Practice Manager and would like to register and enrol large numbers of staff within your organisation for access onto the Improving Mouth Care programme, please contact elfh directly.
Organisations wishing to use their own LMS
For HR departments wanting to know more about gaining access to courses using an existing Learning Management System please contact elfh directly to express interest.
More information
Please select the following link for more information on how to use the elfh Hub.