Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice Program: Ten-Year Outcomes

The Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice Program (OHNEP), a core partner of the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health, is a national initiative focused on implementing an interprofessional oral health workforce innovation to influence change in clinical education, practice, and policy. OHNEP aims to address oral health disparities by enhancing the nursing profession's role in integrating oral health and its links to overall health in both academic and clinical settings. Leveraging the opportunity to cultivate faculty, preceptors, and clinicians as oral health champions, OHNEP aims to integrate interprofessional oral health clinical content and competencies in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs through faculty and preceptor development, curriculum integration, and establishing oral health as a standard of care in clinical settings. Outcomes include widespread dissemination of OHNEP virtual products and resources used by a significant number of undergraduate and graduate programs nationwide. OHNEP has a notable impact on policy related to integrating oral health and its links to overall health in undergraduate and graduate nursing programs, thereby increasing interprofessional oral health workforce capacity and aiming to improve oral health equity.

Evaluation of a virtual interprofessional oral-systemic health simulation experience in nursing, dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy education

PURPOSE

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

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.

Attaining interprofessional competencies by connecting oral health to overall health

PURPOSE

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.

Senior Oral Health: A Community-Based, Interprofessional Educational Experience for Nursing and Dental Students

The current article highlights an interprofessional, older adult oral health community program, created through an Accelerating Interprofessional Community-Based Education and Practice grant from the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education, designed to address the gap between older adult health education and care delivery. This project developed an advanced practice, nurse-led partnership among The Hartford Institute for Geriatric Nursing and the Oral Health Nursing Education and Practice Program (both located at New York University Rory Meyers College of Nursing), New York University College of Dentistry, and Regional Aid for Interim Needs (RAIN), a community service organization for older adults in the Bronx. Teams of nursing (n = 26), nurse practitioner (n = 16), and dental (n = 64) students provided oral health education and oral hygiene instruction using Tooth Wisdom^® educational materials to older adults, home health aides (HHAs), and volunteers in nine RAIN senior centers. Students demonstrated increases in their self-reported interprofessional competencies based on the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey. Results also revealed that older adults (n = 500), HHAs (n = 142), and volunteers (n = 21) at the RAIN senior centers who attended the Tooth Wisdom presentation demonstrated an increase in oral health knowledge. [Journal of Gerontological Nursing, 46(8), 37-45.].