Factors related to dental nurse preparation for working in Tambon Health Promoting Hospitals in Thailand.

Abstract

Dental  nurses  are  the  important  persons  who  often  the  major  influential  to  promote  oral  heath  in  the sub-district (Tambon) level. Dental caries is still a serious problem among the varieties group of the population in Thailand especially the group of children in rural areas.  This  cross-sectional  descriptive  study  aimed to  identify  factors  associated  with  dental  nurse  preparation  by  chiefs  of  dental  departments  of  community hospitals  all  over  Thailand. Self-administered  questionnaires  were  filled  out  by  290  respondents  to  assess their  socio-demographic  characteristics,  psycho-social  factors,  cues  to  action  and  enabling  factors,  which were  considered  related  to  their  dental  nurse  preparation  performance.  Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics.  The  Chi-square  test  and  multiple  logistic  regression  were  performed  to  determine  associations between the  dental  nurse preparation  and  influential  factors.

Half  of  respondents  had  a  low  level  of  dental  nurse  preparation.  Those who received information said this was mostly from their Provincial Health Office personnel. Factors that were found to have a significant association with dental nurse preparation were age group, perception preparation, mass media, advice from NHSO personnel, advice from other chief of a dental department of a community hospital, hospital policy, hospital assignment, hospital budget support and hospital manpower management system. The most significant predictors was hospital assignments (Adj. OR=2.87, 95%CI=1.76-4.65). Chiefs who had hospital assignments were 2.87  times  more  likely  to  be  well  prepared than  those  who had  not  after adjusting  for other  factors.

The research recommendation showed that the department chiefs need to be encouraged to achieve better dental nurse preparation by mean of hospital policy, hospital budget support, and advice from other chief of a dental department of a community hospital to improve the levels of preparation and management among department chiefs in community hospitals.