Discussion
No gold standard exists for oral care for critically ill patients who are orally intubated. The 2005
AACN Procedure Manual for Critical Care18 and the
CDC guidelines1 provide recommendations for oral
care; however, the level of evidence supporting
these recommendations is generally low. Therefore,
we were not surprised to see a gap in actual practices
compared with policies because of the variations
among different organizations’ policies.
For those nurses (72%) who indicated that their
unit had an oral care policy for orally intubated
patients, using a toothbrush, using toothpaste with
a toothbrush, brushing with a foam swab, using
chlorhexidine oral rinse solution, suctioning the
oral cavity, and assessing the oral cavity were stated
in their ICU policy. The AACN
guidelines recommend brushing
the teeth twice a day, swabbing the
mouth every 2 to 4 hours, and suctioning the oral cavity frequently.
The large number of nurses
(277, 80%) who did not know
their ICU’s VAP incidence rate was
not surprising. Many facilities keep
this information confidential and
do not report this metric, as it may
influence the type of patients who seek care. For those
nurses who reported knowing their VAP incidence
rate, it is encouraging to see the mean VAP rate was
4 (SD 6.6) cases per thousand ventilator days.
National VAP rates are highest in trauma ICUs (15%),
surgical ICUs (13%), CCUs (9.2%), and medical
ICUs (7.8%)