The American Association of Critical-Care Nurses posted an August 1 evidence update to its Practice Alert on oral care for acute and critically ill patients. For bedside nurses, the update puts oral care where it belongs: in the infection-prevention protocol, with the documentation prompts, instead of on the list of comfort tasks that disappear when the shift gets crowded.
What changed
AACN published the alert on February 1, 2026 and added an evidence update on August 1. The alert says inadequate oral care raises the risk of hospital-acquired pneumonia, because the mouth is the reservoir from which microorganisms reach the lower airway through microaspiration.
AACN cites hospital-acquired pneumonia in about 1 percent of hospitalized patients and 10 percent of patients receiving invasive mechanical ventilation. It also reports that 35 percent of hospital-acquired pneumonia cases are ventilator-associated and 65 percent are nonventilator-associated.
What it means for you
The practical point extends past ventilated patients. Most hospital-acquired pneumonia in AACN's split is nonventilator-associated, so oral care matters on more beds than the ICU ventilator bundle covers.
Use the alert to compare your unit's current policy, documentation prompts, supplies, patient-specific precautions, and escalation path against it.
What to watch
Watch for policy revisions, competency updates, or audits that measure whether oral care was done and not only charted. The question is whether the update changes workflow on the floor.
Source: American Association of Critical-Care Nurses Practice Alert, evidence updated August 1, 2026.