Dental News - Dental, medical and nursing students work together in new study

Dental Tribune International

Wed. 24. April 2019

save

NEW YORK, U.S.: With dental caries being the most common chronic childhood disease, it is imperative that health care professionals across all sectors work closely together. In a new study, led by the New York University (NYU) Rory Meyers College of Nursing, dental, medical and nursing students worked together in order to help improve interprofessional skills and collaboration between primary care and dental providers.

“Collaborative, workplace-ready students are valuable assets to any clinical team. Our goal is for team-based, whole person care to become the norm for promoting children’s oral health and preventing cavities,” said Dr. Erin Hartnett, Program Director of Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice (OHNEP) at NYU Meyers and the study’s lead author.

As part of the interprofessional experience, family nurse practitioner, medical and dental students worked as a team to assess patients. Together, they reviewed patients’ charts, looked at patients’ medical and dental history, performed oral assessments, applied fluoride varnish, and educated children and parents. Students also learned to identify the connection between oral health and overall health, covering areas such as how certain diseases or medications can affect oral health. According to the study’s authors, the overall goal was to increase the oral health knowledge and skills of nondental primary care providers while boosting dental students’ knowledge about the link between oral and systemic health.

According to the study, a total of 162 family nurse practitioner, dental and medical students participated in this interprofessional experience, and the students completed surveys before and after their participation to evaluate whether their interprofessional competencies had changed. Results of the study showed that all students had significantly improved interprofessional competency scores after the team-based experience. This included improvements in important factors for working with other professionals, such as communication, collaboration, conflict management, team functioning and using a patient-centered approach.

“Our findings suggest that a team-based, clinical approach can be an effective strategy to help health professional students develop interprofessional competencies,” said co-author Dr. Judith Haber, Ursula Springer Leadership Professor in Nursing at NYU Meyers and Executive Director of OHNEP.

The study, titled “The impact of an interprofessional pediatric oral health clerkship on advancing interprofessional education outcomes,” was published online on April 22, 2019, in the Journal of Dental Education ahead of inclusion in an issue.

Tags:

To post a reply please login or register

COVID-19 and dental education: Will dental schools admit new students in 2021?

LEIPZIG, Germany: Since the COVID-19 pandemic has severely restricted access to clinical practice, students around the world have been adversely affected by...

EFP launches new campaign for cooperation between dental and medical practitioners

BRUSSELS, Belgium: An ongoing and open exchange between oral health providers and family physicians can effectively improve the quality of their patients’...

Amalgam and pregnancy: Mercury vapour limits exceeded in new study

LAKELAND, Fla., US: Although an increasing number of dentists and patients are choosing resin composites as restorative materials, amalgam is still widely ...

Dental students embrace new learning technology

BRISBANE, Australia: In an exciting advancement in the health education field, dental students and medical nurses have been experimenting with augmented ...

Study identifies new bacterial species involved in dental caries formation

PHILADELPHIA, US: It was previously believed that Streptococcus mutans was the main microorganism responsible for dental caries. However, in a recent study,...

New study investigates dental anxiety in children

MANGALORE, India: A key reason behind people not attending regular oral health check-ups can be anxiety stemming from their first experience in a dental ...

International dental students’ association launches new journal

GENEVA, Switzerland: The International Association of Dental Students (IADS) recently published the inaugural issue of International Journal of Dental ...

Exocad to participate in Greater New York Dental Meeting this month

DARMSTADT, Germany/NEW YORK, US: Exocad, a leading dental CAD/CAM software provider, has announced its participation at the 99th annual Greater New York ...

Coronavirus guidelines for dental practitioners and students

WUHAN, China: The COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in Wuhan, has become a serious public health challenge of international concern. Researchers from ...

New partnership to integrate medical and oral care

FOUNTAIN VALLEY, Calif., US: Dentists and doctors will work under one roof and share access to patient records as part of a new partnership that aims to ...

Education

Live webinar
Fri. 26 April 2024
12:00 pm EST (New York)