NYU College of Dentistry awarded a five-year, $1.7M public health training grant from HRSA

New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) has been awarded a five-year, $1.7M Health Resources and Service Administration training grant entitled, “Preparing the Future Dental Workforce for Underserved Young Child and Adolescent Populations (“Preparing the Future”). The grant will address two national problems: 1) the inadequate supply of an available dental workforce that can provide primary dental services for poor, minority, and socially vulnerable pediatric populations; and 2) insufficient training in disease management approaches within pre-doctoral dental (DDS) and dental hygiene (DH) education that can prepare graduates to provide sustainable solutions to improve health outside traditional surgical dental models of care.

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"This grant will enhance our ability to train students to care for underserved children both here in New York City and, once these students enter practice, throughout the world,” said Amr M. Moursi, DDS, PhD, chairman, NYUCD Department of Pediatric Dentistry

“Preparing the Future” is a collaboration between the NYUCD Office of Allied Health Programs and the Departments of Pediatric Dentistry and Epidemiology & Health Promotion. The grant seeks to address the lack of available workforce for vulnerable and underserved pediatric populations by enhancing the curriculum for 1156 DDS students and 65 DH students annually through a series of initiatives spread throughout their respective four-year and two-year programs.

The following three objectives with related activities are proposed:
· Enhanced pediatric dental curriculum: NYUCD will create and deliver a novel blended learning pediatric dental curriculum for DDS and DH students focusing on exposing trainees to vulnerable pediatric populations, and novel approaches used to improve oral health and access to services.
· Enhanced pediatric clinical training: NYUCD DDS and DH students will participate in community-based clinical experiences with training in intraoral imaging, teledentistry, and interprofessional approaches to health services through collaborative learning.
· Student Leadership Development: DDS and DH student leaders will participate in extramural faculty-mentored underrepresented minority recruitment and student leadership activities which include: leadership training events, online certificate granting coursework in Public Health, an interprofessional clerkship, and student-led community projects.

Measured outcomes will include qualitative post-activity self-reflections, school-wide entrance and exit surveys measuring attitudes and behavioral intent to provide care for underserved populations, and electronic surveys of dental graduates on practice location and career activities.