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Purpose: This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of a newly developed oral simulator for nursing students' oral assessment education on oral diseases and symptoms., Materials and Methods: The participants were first-year students (n=105) at a nursing school in Japan. Ten identical oral simulators with angular cheilitis, missing teeth, dental caries, calculus, periodontitis, hypoglossal induration, food debris, and crust formation were created by a team of dentists. After a 45-minute lecture programme for oral assessment performance with the Oral Health Assessment Tool (OHAT), the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT as well as test feedback were conducted in a 30-minute practical programme. To evaluate the effectiveness of the programmes, questionnaires and ability tests with slides of oral images were conducted at baseline and after the programme., Results: Ninety-nine students (94.3%) participated in this study. The results of the ability test with the simulators and the OHAT in the practical programme showed that the correct answer rates of assessing tongue, gingiva, present teeth, and oral pain were less than 40%. Their levels of confidence, perception, and oral assessment performance were statistically significantly higher after the programmes than they were at baseline. Their level of confidence in assessing the need for dental referral had the largest increase in scores compared to the lowest scores at baseline in the nine post-programme assessment categories., Conclusions: This study identified several problems with nursing students' oral assessment skills and improvements of their oral assessment confidence, perceptions and performance.

Purpose: To investigate the practices, attitudes, and confidence of nurses in the performance of oral health checkups in order to develop an educational oral health checkup training programme for nurses., Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was distributed to nurses (n = 184) who worked in a hospital and an affiliated long-term care facility in Japan from September to October in 2016. The questionnaire survey investigated their practices, attitudes and confidence in the performance of oral health checkups for elderly patients who were in their care and the factors that were associated with the performance of oral health checkups., Results: A total of 143 (77.7%) nurses participated in this study. Almost half (51.7%) performed oral health checkups for elderly patients. More than 60% examined the lip, tongue and tongue coating, gingiva and oral mucosa, and oral cleanliness; however only 32.4% examined the present teeth and 8.1% examined the saliva. Approximately 90% of the nurses felt that all health professionals should perform oral health checkups for elderly patients who were in their care. Their confidence of the oral examination was statistically significantly associated with their performance of oral health checkups for elderly patients., Conclusions: This is the first survey to investigate the practices, attitudes, and confidence of nurses in the performance of oral health checkups. These findings will contribute to the development of a training programme for nurses who perform oral health checkups in elderly patients.