Development of the Oral Assessment Scale for Patients with Oral Cancer After Surgery

• Main Authors: Yi Chen, Chen, 李怡珍
• Other Authors: 許雅娟
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2014
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/25243480608462641679

碩士 === 長榮大學 === 護理學系碩士班 === 102 === Promoting oral health is a key point of physical care for postoperative patients of oral cancer. Therefore, using a credible and appropriate oral assessment scale can not only guide nursing staff discover the oral status of postoperative patients, but also take advantages of measuring outcomes to design individualized intervention related to oral care. In Taiwan, most nurses assess oral status after surgery based on personal clinical experiences. The usage of oral assessment scale in clinics is not common due to the incompletely developed current index. Thus the purpose of this study was to develop a useful, clinical-intense oral assessment scale and establish its psychometric properties. The Oral Assessment Scale (OAS) was developed through five professional council meetings as well as two verifications of content validity by experts. The scale consists of 10 items and each has 1-3 score(s) evaluation. The possible score ranges from 10-30. The lower score indicates the better oral status. Data were collected at Intensive Care Unit of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and general wards in a medical center of South Taiwan. Participants were oral cancer patients undergoing excision of oral tumor and had not been treated by chemotherapy or radiotherapy. The Oral Assessment Scale was administered in the first day morning after receiving surgery and before applying daily mouth care offered by nurses. SPSS 19.0 software package was used for assessing the inter-rater reliability by Intraclass Correlation Coefficient (ICC), internal consistency reliability by Cronbach’s α, and criterion-related validity by Pearson’s product-moment correlation coefficient. Results showed that Content Validity Index of Oral Assessment Scale was 1.0. The ICCs of ten items was between 0.97 and 1. The level of Cronbach’s α was 0.72. There was a statistically significant negative relationship between oral status and the comfortable level of oral (r = -0.93, p < 0.001), which referred to well criterion-related validity. In conclusion, the Oral Assessment Scale is a valid and reliable assessment tool to assess the oral status for oral cancer patients after surgery.