The University of Florida Care One clinic provides interprofessionally-coordinated health services for medically complex individuals who are frequent utilizers of the institution’s emergency department. In the Fall of 2019, the clinic added dental screening services to address patients’ oral health needs. With dental faculty supervision, dental students provide a comprehensive oral exam and referral to services as feasible; they work with pharmacy and medical students, nurses and a social worker. Goals associated with dental student inclusion included (1) Establishing an interprofessional clinical experience that builds upon pre-clinical interprofessional activities. (2) Reinforce the importance of holistic, patient centered care. (3) Provide opportunities for dental students to assess the needs of vulnerable populations. To explore dental students’ learning while working with the interprofessional team, this study analyzed reflection papers written following their attendance at a clinic session. The reflection prompts asked students to consider: 1) the patient’s health needs; 2) how they would apply this experience to their future clinical management of patients; 3) how it impacted their view of interprofessional collaboration; and 4) how did another non-dental provider/student provide value to the clinic’s work. Reflections were content analyzed by three research team members to determine primary themes. Resulting themes included: the importance of holistic care; deeper value for interprofessional collaboration through participating in it “in action;” enhanced knowledge and appreciation of other professions’ roles and how they, as dentists, contribute to the health system. A brief interprofessional clinical experience addressing medically complex patients’ oral health needs provides valuable interprofessional learning for dental students by deepening dental students’ appreciation and knowledge of interprofessional collaboration, and heightening awareness for holistic patient care, thus influencing their view of their own profession. This clinical experience offers a model for others interested in expanding interprofessoinal care and education to include oral health practitioners and students.
Disclosures:
In accordance with the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education’s Standards for Commercial Support, adopted by the Joint Accreditors for Interprofessional Continuing Education, the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education has a conflict of interest policy that requires that all individuals involved in the development of activity content disclose their relevant financial relationships with commercial interests. All potential conflicts of interest that arise based upon these financial relationships are resolved prior to the educational activity.
Adelita Cantu, Rebekah Salt, Sadie Trammell Velasquez, David Ojeda Diaz, Diane Ferguson, Debbie Chang, Jeff Jackson, Cristina Grijalva, Stephanie de Sam Lazaro, Adele Della Torre, Jayne-Marie Raponi, Amy Blue, Kiran Lukose, Kelly Lockeman, Tina Gunaldo, Sharon Lanning, Michelle McGregor, Jessica Owens
declare no vested interest in or affiliation with any commercial interest offering financial support for this interprofessional continuing education activity, or any affiliation with a commercial interest whose philosophy could potentially bias their presentation.
