Development of oral simulators with oral diseases and symptoms for nursing oral assessment education

Abstract Background: This study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of the newly developed oral simulators with oral diseases and symptoms for nursing students’ oral assessment education to promote their collaboration with oral healthcare professionals after qualification. Methods: The participants were first-year students (n=105) at a nursing school in Japan. Ten oral simulators with angular cheilitis, missing teeth, dental caries, calculus, periodontitis, hypoglossal induration, food debris, and crust formation were created by a team of dentists. After a 45-minute lecture programme for oral assessment performance with the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT), the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT and the test feedback were conducted in a 30-minute practical programme. To evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes, questionnaire surveys regarding confidence and perceptions of oral assessment performance and ability tests with slides of oral images were conducted at baseline and after the programmes. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare their baseline survey results with their postprogramme results. Results: Ninety-nine students (94.3%) participated in this study. The results of the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT in the practical programme showed that the correct answer rates of assessing tongue, gingiva, present teeth, and oral pain were less than 40%. Their levels of confidence, perception, and ability of oral assessment performance were significantly higher after the programmes than they were at baseline (P<0.05). Their level of confidence in assessing the need for dental referral had the largest increase in scoring level from the lowest scoring level at baseline in the nine postprogramme assessment categories. Conclusions: This study identified several problems with nursing students’ oral assessment skills and showed that oral assessment education with simulators might be effective in improvingtheir oral assessment confidence, perceptions, and performance.