• Craig M Dale, Jan E Angus, Tasnim Sinuff, and Louise Rose.
• Craig M. Dale is an assistant professor and Jan E. Angus is an associate professor, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. Tasnim Sinuff is an assistant professor, Department of Critical Care, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, and Interdepartmental Division of Critical Care, University of Toronto. Louise Rose is the TD Nursing Professor of Critical Care Research, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, an associate professor, Lawrence S. Bloomberg Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, research director, Provincial Centre of Weaning Excellence/Prolonged Ventilation Weaning Centre, Toronto East General Hospital, and an adjunct scientist, Mt Sinai Hospital, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St Michael's Hospital, and West Park Healthcare Centre, Toronto, Canada. craig.dale@utoronto.ca.
• Am. J. Crit. Care. 2016 May 1; 25 (3): 249-56.

BackgroundOral care plays a clear and important role in the prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia. However, few studies have explored the actual work of oral care by nurses in the intensive care unit.ObjectiveTo explore intensive care nurses' knowledge of and experiences with the delivery of oral care to reveal less visible aspects of this work.MethodsIn an institutional ethnography, go-along and semistructured interview methods were used to explore the oral care practices and perspectives of 12 bedside nurses and 12 interprofessional (intensivist, allied health, and management) participants in an intensive care unit at a large urban teaching hospital in Ontario, Canada.ResultsNurses described how obstacles frequently inhibited the delivery of oral care. Technical barriers included oral crowding with tubes and aversive responses by patients, such as biting. Contextual impediments to oral care included time constraints, lack of training, and limited opportunities for interprofessional collaboration. A key discovery was the presence of an informal unit-based nursing curriculum, whereby nurses acquired strategies to overcome barriers to oral care. Although the nurses did extensive problem solving in providing oral care, the interprofessional participants had limited knowledge of how oral care was accomplished.ConclusionThese data suggest the complexity of performing oral care in intensive care is underestimated and perhaps undervalued. Future research is needed to address technical and contextual barriers to optimize current guideline expectations for the provision of regular and effective oral care.©2016 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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