Faculty Bibliography

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The annual teaching oral-systemic health (TOSH) virtual clinical simulation and case study activity exposes interprofessional teams of nurse practitioner, nurse midwifery, dental, medical, and pharmacy students to a virtual clinical simulation experience that uses oral-systemic health as a clinical exemplar for promoting interprofessional core competencies. The present study examines changes in participating students' self-reported interprofessional competencies following participation in virtual TOSH from 2020 to 2022. These findings are also compared to those from in-person TOSH (2019) to examine the equivalence of student outcomes of both the in-person and virtual programs. METHODS:A pre- and post-test evaluation design was used to examine the effectiveness of exposure to the TOSH program on self-reported attainment of interprofessional competencies for participating students using the interprofessional collaborative competency attainment scale. RESULTS:Analysis of pre- and post-surveys demonstrated statistically significant improvement in students' self-rated interprofessional experience competencies following the virtual TOSH program, which aligns with results from the in-person cohorts. Similar findings between the in-person and virtual cohorts indicated no statistically significant difference between the two formats. CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:These findings demonstrate the success of TOSH in promoting attainment of interprofessional competencies among future health professionals. We encourage administrators and faculty who lead health professional programs to take advantage of using virtual simulations as an integral component of interprofessional oral health clinical experiences where students from different health professions learn from and about each other in assessing and treating patients across the lifespan.

This study describes a theory-informed application of data science methods to analyze the quality of reflections made in a health professions education program over time. One thousand five hundred reflections written by a cohort of 369 dental students over 4 years of academic study were evaluated for an overall measure of reflection depth (No, Shallow, Deep) and the presence of six theoretically-indicated elements of reflection quality (Description, Analysis, Feeling, Perspective, Evaluation, Outcome). Machine learning models were then built to automatically detect these qualities based on linguistic features in the reflections. Results showed a dramatic increase from No to Shallow reflections from the start to end of year one (20%  →  66%), but only a limited gradual rise in Deep reflections across all four years (2%  →  26%). The presence of all six reflection elements increased over time, but inclusion of Feelings and Analysis remained relatively low even at the end of year four (found in 44% and 60% of reflections respectively). Models were able to reliably detect the presence of Description (κ_TEST = 0.70) and Evaluation (κ_TEST = 0.65) in reflections; models to detect the presence of Analysis (κ_TEST = 0.50), Feelings (κ_TEST = 0.54), and Perspectives (κ_TEST = 0.53) showed moderate performance; the model to detect Outcomes suffered from overfitting (κ_TRAIN = 0.90, κ_TEST = 0.53). A classifier for overall depth built on the reflection elements showed moderate performance across all time periods (κ_TEST > 0.60) but relied almost exclusively on the presence of Description. Implications for the conceptualization of reflection quality and providing personalized learning support to help students develop reflective skills are discussed.

PURPOSE/OBJECTIVE:The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an annual oral-systemic health interprofessional education (IPE) clinical simulation and case study experience with nurse practitioner/midwifery (NP/MW), dental (DDS), medical (MD), and pharmacy (PharmD) students. METHODS:The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) was used to measure students' self-reported attainment of interprofessional competencies before and after the IPE experience. Pre- and post-test surveys were completed by NP/MW, DDS, MD, and PharmD student cohorts from 2017 to 2019. Students also had the opportunity to provide qualitative feedback about their experience at post-test. Data were collected from IPE faculty facilitators to assess their perception of the value of the Teaching Oral-Systemic Health (TOSH) program. RESULTS:Student ICCAS results demonstrated statistically significant improvement in self-reported interprofessional competencies among all types of students across all 3 years (P < 0.001); qualitative student comments reflected positive experiences with the TOSH program. Survey data from IPE faculty facilitators supported the value of the IPE experience for all students. CONCLUSIONS:The findings demonstrate the effectiveness of the TOSH program in using oral-systemic health as a clinical exemplar to develop interprofessional competencies. The 2017-2019 data reinforce the credibility of scaling the TOSH model for developing interprofessional competencies with students from different health professions.

To state that the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 has broadly and deeply impacted our lives is an understatement. Since it first showed up on our radar in December 2019, the new coronavirus has wreaked havoc on virtually all businesses and industries across the globe. The impact is equally felt in developing, developed, industrialized, rural, rich, and poor countries and communities, irrespective of how well-prepared those countries and communities felt they were 9 months ago. To this day we are still learning to prepare for, respond to, and adapt to the broad and deep impact of this virus. This essay presents different perspectives on the impact of the novel coronavirus to dentistry, through the lenses of a private practice-based general dentist, a nursing home-based public health dentist, and a school of dentistry clinical director. The goal of the essay is to share our experiences and challenges, as well as highlight our capacity to respond to a crisis with resilience, determination, creativity, inventivity, and, most importantly, humility and altruism.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an interprofessional education (IPE) clinical simulation and case study experience, using oral-systemic health as the clinical population health example, for nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students' self-reported attainment of interprofessional competencies. A pretest-posttest evaluation method was employed, using data from the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Scale (ICCAS) completed by two large cohorts of nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students at one U.S. university. Data from faculty facilitators were collected to assess their perceptions of the value of exposing students to interprofessional clinical simulation experiences focused on oral-systemic health. The results showed that self-reported interprofessional competencies measured by the ICCAS improved significantly from pre- to posttest for all three student types in 2013 (p<0.001) and 2014 (p<0.001). Faculty facilitators reported that the IPE clinical simulation experiences were valuable and positively influenced interprofessional communication, collaboration, patient communication, and student understanding of patient care roles. These results suggest that the Teaching Oral-Systemic Health Program Interprofessional Oral-Systemic Health Clinical Simulation and Case Study Experience was effective as a standardized, replicable curriculum unit using oral-systemic health as a population health exemplar to teach and assess interprofessional competencies with nurse practitioner/midwifery, dental, and medical students.