Using Oral Care Kits (Nursing)

00:00 Let's take a look at using oral care kits. Now these are bundled oral care kits that are really helpful especially in like the intensive care unit setting. So let's take a closer look at these kits. So these are bundled to assist with providing oral care to the debilitated or comatose client. So in these packets, there is mouth moisturizer, there is toothpaste. Now each piece of this what I want you to know is their suction devices on the sponge and the toothbrush. So these are really helpful to help remove excess secretions to reduce aspiration. Now if you've noticed looking at this kit, there is a lot of supplies in here, but we provide materials needed for 24-hour care, and so this is meant to be care delivered at every 4-hour interval. So again, just 1 oral care kit for 24 hours. So let's take a look at what we're going to need to use that kit. We've got the kit itself, it's going to need that suction set up if you remember, penlight to assess the oral cavity, and then before we get started we want to make sure we bring the entire oral care kit to the room. So again, notice when you look at this all of our supplies are packaged in one. So it's really convenient. A lot of the times you're going to see them at the bedside table, but especially hooked on to the IV pole.

01:26 Nurses love to put it there because it really makes us remember to do oral care when we enter the patient's room. So before we get started, perform that hand hygiene and put on some gloves. We want to make sure we explained the procedure to the client and provide privacy of course. Now anytime we work, we want to make sure we raise the bed to the appropriate height and make sure the patient is comfortable as well. So before we get started with the oral care itself, we want to assess the oropharyngeal cavity using a penlight. So this is important because if we see any ulcers, any excess debris, we need to make sure we target this to remove it during our oral care. Now before we get started, we want to check our suction to make sure it's working. Now let's take a look at using the oral care kit itself. So before we get started, take that Yankauer and we want to attach it to the suction tubing. We're going to use this to remove any excess secretions from the patient's oral cavity. Now once we suctioned, now we can remove it and then attach the suction toothbrush. Now once we've attached the suction toothbrush, we can open the providing brushing solution and moisten the suction toothbrush. Now with that, we can clean the teeth, the gums, and the tongue. So if you remember, all of these is attached to suction so it's really helpful to reduce excess secretions when you're providing oral care and to reduce aspiration. Now once cleaning is done, we can remove the toothbrush and remove it from the suction tubing. Once the suction toothbrush is removed, we can discard that, replace it with the suction sponge and attach it to the suction tubing. Once that's completed, we can put the mouth moisturizer on the suction sponge. Now we like to use this to apply moisturizer to the teeth, gums, and the tongue. This is really key for oral care of the debilitated or comatose client because a lot of the times their mucous membranes can be dehydrated, so mouth moisturizer is really helpful here. Now once we've moisturized, we can remove the suction catheter and attach that Yankauer again and we're going to use that Yankauer to suction the client's oral cavity to remove excess secretions or debris one more time. Now, once we've completed this, this is a great time after oral care to reassess the oropharyngeal cavity. We want to return the bed to the lowest position for safety, position the client for comfort, dispose of any trash, and remove our gloves, perform our hand hygiene, and document our procedure. Hi guys, welcome to oral care kits. So just know this equipment is going to vary from facility to facility, and there's many components that are in this. If you remember, oral care kits are such a great piece of equipment to remind us nurses to make sure we do oral care at least every 4 hours on our patients. So let's take a quick look at really one of the bigger pieces of an oral care kit as normally in an oral care kit you'll see like some toothpaste, some mouthwash for example, maybe even some mouth swabs. But let me show you really quick one of the biggest and most important pieces of the oral care kit. So, as you see here, I've got my suction tubing, this is going to connect to our canister and to our suction device. So this is really great to provide suction, as you remember, during oral care because it will help reduce aspiration for our clients. So let me show you something. So this is an example of an oral care swab with suction. So if you notice, this end fits really nicely into our suction tubing. So this is just going to connect here. Now this is just going to connect the suction, here's our suction control and here's the head here.

05:19 Now, this is an oral care swab with a little bitty hole in it that's going to be able to use around in the patient's mouth and also suck any excess secretions simultaneously. Sometimes you may also see a toothbrush that looks a lot like this. Okay, one more thing before we go.

05:35 The biggest piece. When you're using this device, this little hole here is going to be your suction control. So really, it's as simple as this. When you don't want suction applied, keep your thumb off the hole, place this in the patient's mouth but when you're ready for suction just place your thumb on top of the hole to cover it and then while you're working in the patient's mouth this will provide suction. Thanks for watching.