Key stakeholders gather at dental hygiene symposium to redefine health education
On September 18, over 100 oral health stakeholders convened in downtown Chicago for an unprecedented collaboration to envision the role of the dental hygiene profession in the future health care system. A joint endeavor of the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA), the ADHA Institute for Oral Health, and The Santa Fe Group, “Transforming Dental Hygiene Education” has paved the way for a fundamental shift in how dental hygienists will be prepared for an ever-changing health care system.
Dental hygiene educators and practitioners, program directors, and association officers joined with representatives of federal agencies, philanthropy groups, oral health institutions and other health professions to take a hard look at the strengths and weaknesses of contemporary dental hygiene education, and determine what must change in order for dental hygienists to better meet the oral health needs of the American public.
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Attendees weighed the potential impact of their decisions in the context of the Affordable Care Act. They spoke at length about the barriers to change that must be overcome, and heard from their peers on innovative collaboration models. Former Administrator of the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), Dr. Claude Earl Fox, explained how attendees could lead the transformation of their own profession, and representatives of nursing, pharmacy, and physician assistants explained how their professions have extended their scope of practice through innovation and persistent efforts to influence the legislative, educational, and practice environments.
ADHA President Denise Bowers, RDH, PhD, and Santa Fe Group President Linda Niessen, DMD, MPH, MPP, presided over the event. Niessen, whose group boasts an impressive roster of academics, practitioners and business leaders, called the symposium “a catalyst for the change needed to ensure dental hygiene’s relevance.”
President Bowers was similarly pleased. “It is not every day that representatives from the highest levels of all of those groups gather in one place, and it is remarkable that they did so specifically to discuss the future of dental hygiene education,” she remarked in an address to the association’s membership. “I believe that the process ADHA has initiated will continue because the people in the room who were talking to each other will seize on the momentum to bring about much needed change.”
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That process has already begun, with the development of an academic white paper and detailed proceedings of the event. In the immediate wake of the symposium, ADHA’s board of trustees made the bold decision to alter the ADHA strategic plan to reflect the outcomes of the symposium; the association’s core ideology now focuses on “lead[ing] the transformation of the dental hygiene profession to improve the public’s oral and overall health.” Representatives of ADHA and the Santa Fe Group will present the symposium outcomes at the American Dental Education Association’s annual meeting in March of 2014.
In a similar spirit of proactive movement, the Academy for Academic Leadership and ADHA will partner with Dr. Pamela Overman of the University of Missouri Kansas City School of Dentistry to lead several dental hygiene education programs to develop domains, competencies, and strategies for improvements in the dental hygiene curriculum discussed in “Transforming Dental Hygiene Education.” A report on this project will be presented at ADHA’s Center for Lifelong Learning in June.
One of the factors that made “Transforming Dental Hygiene Education” extraordinary was the willingness of corporate and philanthropic partners to lend their support to the cause. ADHA thanks Sunstar, Colgate, Dentsply, Procter & Gamble, Premier Dental, Patterson Dental, and Henry Schein Dental, as well as the DentaQuest Foundation, the Washington Dental Service Foundation, the American Dental Education Association Gies Foundation, and the Institute for Oral Health in Washington for their contributions.
Columbia University’s Dr. Michael Sparer reminded the assembled that, whether or not the Affordable Care Act is funded and implemented, the trends that gave rise to it and the action taken have left an indelible mark on the American health care system. And while the long-term impact of the ADHA’s symposium cannot be foreseen, it has certainly begun a conversation that will have lasting implications for the nation’s oral health.
For more information about ADHA, dental hygiene or the link between oral health and general health, visit ADHA at www.adha.org. For more information about the ADHA Institute for Oral Health, visit www.adha.org/ioh.
