Oral health ambassador scheme: training needs analysis in the community setting

Introduction Successful oral health promotion relies on resource availability, adequate training and stakeholder engagement. Community nursing teams are in a unique position to promote oral health due to their vulnerable service users who have increased oral health concerns. This article will share results from a training needs analysis. Aims To understand the previous oral health promotion experience of staff within community nursing teams, including identification of previous training and barriers to oral health promotion. Materials and methods An electronic training needs analysis was distributed to non-dental, patient-facing staff within Birmingham Community NHS Foundation Trust. Results In total, 91% (n = 120) of staff members had seen a patient who displayed oral health concerns, 68% (n = 90) of responders had never received training for assessing a patient's mouth and providing mouth care and 9% (n = 12) of staff had received internal trust training regarding oral health. Lack of training impeded 56% (n = 74) of participants from providing oral care and 92% (n = 121) of participants expressed they would benefit from further oral health training. Conclusion Community nursing teams should be supported to engage with oral health promotion to encourage reduced knowledge and confidence deficits, which will support holistic patient management to encourage improvement of oral and general health.