Raising oral health awareness among nephrology nurses.

The complexity of care for patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) reinforces the need for collaboration between health care providers. The purpose of this study was to raise oral health awareness by providing educational seminars to health care providers, specifically nephrology nurses.Educational seminars entitled "Oral Health and Chronic Kidney Disease" were delivered by calibrated dental hygiene educators to nurses in 3 different regions in the United States. The nurse participants (n=106) were given randomly assigned pre- and post-tests, assessing their knowledge of oral health and its relation to CKD.Pre-tests revealed that nurses had little knowledge of oral health and its relation to CKD. Regardless of questionnaire order, a significant increase of knowledge was observed for both groups (p-value ≤ 0.015), increasing from 61 to 76% on average.Incorporating interdisciplinary education increases nurses' knowledge and may lead to greater quality of life outcomes and improved overall health in patients with CKD.