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Expanding Interprofessional Learning Opportunities: How Dental Hygiene Administrators And Faculty Perceive Interprofessional Education, Cristina Casa

All Theses And Dissertations

The health care system has undergone transformation, implementing an interprofessional approach to patient care. Professionals have formed collaborative practice groups that effectively respond to the intricacies of today’s medical industry. Dental hygienists are underemployed in these teams. This has a direct effect on dental hygiene academia because education is the basis for practice. Interprofessional education (IPE) has been proposed as the strategy to adequately address this issue; however, many dental hygiene programs do not focus on shared teaching and learning.

This mixed methodology study documented the perspectives of dental hygiene administrators and faculty at higher education institutions in the Northeast …

Hand Function Evaluation For Dental Hygiene Students, Sara Taft

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Dental hygiene students may struggle in dental hygiene curriculum in regards to hand function. Currently, this is not an aspect dental hygiene programs screen for or have protocol in place to help students. The research in the study examined if hand function could improve with hand function exercises and if exercises improved instrumentation scores. During a 6-week pilot study, an occupational therapist tested the hand function of a cohort of dental hygiene students. The results were recorded and the students began a 6-week hand function exercise regimen. After 6 weeks the same evaluations were preformed and the pre- and posttest …