Oral Care as Prevention for Non-ventilator Hospital-acquired Pneumonia: A Four-unit Cluster Randomized Study

Prior to the study, the research team will have a lead-in period where education will be provided to the interventional groups and demonstration of desired oral care practices for patients (September 1-30, 2018) Design Previous research on the effectiveness of oral care for NV-HAP prevention has primarily relied on pre/post intervention study designs. In order to enhance compliance and avoid contamination of both the treatment and intervention groups, the research proposed the use of cluster randomization.

ICD-10 codes and a standardized CDC definition of non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia will be used to determine the baseline incidence on NV-HAP for the 12 months prior to study implementation. The incidence will be expressed as both an overall incidence based on total patient days, as well as a rate per 1000 patient days.

The research team will follow the consolidated standards of reporting trials (CONSORT) research methods and reporting for pragmatic trials (2010). The research team will implement the HAPPI protocol using Stetler's model of implementation science. Overall the implementation process will be guided by Influencer Model ™ .

Methods There are no experimental procedures or medications use proposed in this study. The study consists of implementing a standardized oral care protocol (Attachment A) which are components of basic nursing care. Previous research has found that opportunities for oral care were often missed as part of daily care. The research team proposed to set specific standards and protocols for delivery of oral care on the intervention unit and to monitor the amount of oral care provided on both the control and intervention units.

The evidence-based oral care protocol consists of: