Mouth Care Matters raises awareness at East Surrey Hospitals Patient Safety week

Someone once said ’knowledge is power and education is the premise of progress’. If this is true, some powerful people have been made during patient safety week at East Surrey Hospital.

Patient safety week took place  23– 27 January 2017 . Clinical leads ran taster sessions throughout the week on a variety of patient safety topics. This was an opportunity to share  information about Patient Safety Awareness and Education.

Mouth Care Matters joined forces with the nutrition nurse to raise awareness on Oral Health.

The importance of good oral health has on a patient’s general health was the focus for these sessions. In particular the effect this can have on a patients ability to eat and drink. An ulcer can affect a patients’ ability to eat often causing them to go without food for a few days. Oral thrush left untreated can lead to a severe sore mouth which can lead to problems with eating. All these examples can lead to weaker patients, which may lead to longer hospital stays.

 Talks with small groups of nurses took place on the wards.  Examples of how good daily mouth care can help prevent many health problems were the focus of theses talks.

The talks were so successful, Mouth Care Matters have decided to join forces with the nutrition nurse for future on ward training.

As well as ward trainingPatient Safety weekPatient safety awareness training, there was also a mouth care stand for a day and oral suctioning training sessions in the dental simulation lab. Using photographs of mouths from referrals at East Surrey Hospital, we enticed staff to come talk to us about the links mouth care has on a patient’s general health.

Studies show that mouth care is linked to general health, and by educating staff with  knowledge of oral health and nutrition; this hopefully made a difference during patient’s safety week and will have a positive impact on future care.