Nurses how do you deal with heavily utmost Bad Breath patients?

Question

example a D.M. patient in NPO for 3 days?

what do you do when they talk to you and you are obtaining their BP with a "very short" stethoscope?

do u just smile & hold your breath?

...what are your expereinces?

Answer 1

First off, think of the patient and not one's self. If the patient has bad breath, figure out the cause; they probably need oral hygeine provided or administered. Or, they may have some sort of oral infection which warrants a closer examination, and perhaps alerting the doc.

There are far worse smells you will encounter than bad breath, trust me on this one.

Answer 2

The facility that I work at has oral swabs that have a peroxide based gel.  We are encouraged to do mouth care on our patients at least BID.  Even if they are NPO they can have oral swabs.  You may also want to suggest letting your patient brush his/her teeth in the mornings as long as they spit out the toothpaste.    But to answer your comment smile take it with a grain of sand and give your patient the best care you can provide even though you feel like vomiting at the bedside.

Answer 3

If I know that the patient has chronic halitosis I walk in and say

I bet your mouth is dry, I am going to swab it for you and you can spit out the water, another trick is to find something opposite you in the room and ask about it, the patients head will be turned  while talking about it (maybe a card or the weather outside the window ) Sometimes  not  talking is best so I will say I am trying to listen for a certain nurse,  or the radio or TV in the next room- usually they will remain quiet. If I take vitals I will ask them to turn their head slightly maybe  ask them to look at a certain object in the room, if they ask why just say that you do not want them to move too much  while you are counting there breaths I treat them with the respect I would want to be treated with, and smile with my lips together and hold my breath as much as I can.