Nurses’ clinical oral care practices and prevention of hospital-associated pneumonia in non-ventilated patients in ICU: A qualitative study

This study will explore the intensive care nurses’ clinical oral care practices and prevention of hospital-associated pneumonia in non-ventilated patients. We will interview a wide-range of intensive care nurses on their clinical oral care practices, enablers and barriers and explore their beliefs about prevention of hospital-associated pneumonia. The findings of this study will be used to develop a questionnaire to survey nurses at a larger scale and obtain results which can be generalisable. This study will help to create awareness of the problem, and identify potential areas for future studies to improve oral care practices and reduce hospital-associated pneumonia. The findings of the study will be presented at conferences, and published in reputable journal.