Knowledge and attitude of nurses’ towards patient’s oral care at University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Northwest Ethiopia

Background Poor oral hygiene increases the mortality and morbidity rates of hospitalized patients. Although it leads to serious health consequence, it is not well studied in Ethiopia. Objectives The study assessed nurses’ knowledge, attitude, and factors associated with the patients’ oral care among nurses at the University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital, Northwest Ethiopia, 2018. Design, setting and participant A cross-sectional study was conducted from April, 1 to May, 30, 2018 among 422 nurses at the University of Gondar comprehensive specialized hospital. Study participants were selected by systematic random sampling technique. Method Data was collected through a structured self-administered questionnaire. Data was entered into Epi-info version 7 and analyzed using SPSS version 20. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was computed. Multivariable logistic regression was used to assess the association between dependent and independent variables. The P-value ≤ 0.05 was used to declare significance association. Results The response rate of the study was 91.32%. Nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards patients’ oral care were 53.4% (95% CI: 47.7–57.9) and 57.3% (95% CI 53.4–62.2) respectively. Level of education, working unit and the presence of oral care protocol had a significant association with Knowledge. Whereas; the level of education, working experience and having training about patients’ oral care had a significant association with attitude. Conclusion Nurses’ knowledge and attitude towards patients’ oral care were inadequate. Therefore, providing nurses oral health care training is very crucial.