Defining and measuring construct of interprofessional professionalism.

The Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative (IPC), convened in 2006, currently consists of 11 national organizations representing health professions programs at the doctoral entry level, and is developing a framework of "interprofessional professionalism" (IPP) around observable behaviors that illustrate what professionalism looks like in the context of interprofessional collaborations focused on patient-, client-, and family-centered care. IPC's goal is to create tools to foster and measure these behaviors in health professionals and students. This paper describes the work of IPC to date and its future plans.

A survey of U.S. dental school programs that help students consider academic careers.

The faculty shortage in dental education has been reported for many years and is expected to increase. Some dental schools have developed "grow your own" programs that introduce students to academic careers and give them teaching experiences. These programs generally consist of teaching assistant, fellowship, and peer tutoring opportunities. In this study, a nineteen-item survey was sent to fifty-six U.S. dental schools to determine the extent to which such programs were being implemented. Thirty-six out of fifty-six dental schools responded, a response rate of 64 percent. Twenty-five schools or 69 percent of the respondents reported the existence of a formal teaching assistant, fellowship, or peer tutoring program in which students teach in some capacity. The main reasons reported for implementing these programs were to expose students to academia and to address faculty shortages. The respondents reported that positive outcomes for dental student teachers and their students were academic benefits and increased interest in academic life. Among the barriers reported were securing faculty and financial support and problems with scheduling.

Evaluating the impact of the ADEA Admissions Committee Workshops.

Drawing on the interconnection of workforce diversity and oral health access, the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) is leading a novel approach to improve student body diversity in U.S. dental schools through an admissions committee development program. With funding provided by the Pipeline, Profession, and Practice: Community-Based Dental Education program and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, ten dental directors/deans of admissions from a cross-section of U.S. dental schools were selected through a competitive application process to participate in a Train-the-Trainers Admissions Committee Workshop. After completing intensive training that was built on legally sound admissions practices, these new trainers copresented ADEA Admissions Committee Workshops in two-member teams at six U.S. dental schools. This report summarizes the evaluation of both the train-the-trainers workshop and six workshops held in summer 2009. Also summarized are post-workshop outcomes relative to structural diversity at the participating schools.

Advancement of women in dental education: expanding opportunities, enriching the pool.

In the recent past, we have seen both the dental student applicant and enrollment pools of women in the United States increase. There has been an increase in both women applicants and first-year enrollees from the year 2000. The advancement of women in advanced educational programs and into dental faculty positions has likewise seen a trend of increase. The challenge to dental education is to ensure that the recruitment and advancement of women to careers in dental education and research in the future are consistent with their talent, expertise, and career expectations. Within this pool of women are our future leaders, deans, and researchers. As we consider future faculty needs for all dental faculty members, we must consider the unique needs of women who must balance their careers with other societal demands related to their gender.

Components of effective outreach and recruitment programs for underrepresented minority and low-income dental students.

Dental schools in the Pipeline, Profession, and Practice: Community-Based Dental Education program that increased the number of underrepresented minority (URM) and low-income (LI) students in their predoctoral programs used focused approaches in their outreach, recruitment, and retention initiatives. Various combinations of approaches were used by the fifteen schools that received funding during Phase I of the program, which spanned 2003 to 2007. URM enrollment in the Pipeline schools increased from 184 students in 2003 to 246 in 2007. These enrollment numbers represent 16 and 20 percent of the first-year class in the Pipeline schools in 2003 and 2007, respectively. If the historically minority-serving institutions--Howard University College of Dentistry and Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry--are removed from these totals, the numbers changed from 100 in 2003 to 144 in 2007, representing 10 and 13 percent of the first-year classes. This chapter describes the approaches used by the fifteen Pipeline schools to increase the number of URM and LI students recruited to and enrolled in their predoctoral programs. It describes the internal infrastructural and organizational approaches these dental schools used to increase awareness about oral health careers among URM and LI students and to recruit applicants from these populations to their educational programs. The effective partnerships and collaborations these dental schools established with each other and external stakeholders to bolster their career outreach and recruitment efforts and some of the informal efforts that supported increased diversity are also examined.

Increasing minority enrollment utilizing dental admissions workshop strategies.

Oral Health in America, the landmark U.S. surgeon general's report, inextricably connects oral health disparities with poor access to oral care by vulnerable populations. Furthermore, the report associates an insufficiently diverse dental workforce with oral health disparities among some minority groups. Successful strategies to curtail oral health disparities and remedy work-force issues require collaboration among all involved in dental education. As gatekeepers to dental programs, admissions committees are significant stakeholders in diversifying the dental workforce. The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that a workshop on diversity in admissions can modify the perceptions of individuals involved in the student recruitment and admissions processes and lead to increased matriculation of underrepresented minority students. Emerging from the workshop were key concepts and action steps for promoting a holistic review of dental applicants. Results since implementing the workshop recommendations have been positive, with underrepresented minority dental student acceptances increasing sixfold. The workshop was cosponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and facilitated by two nationally recognized dental educators.

Increasing the enrollment of underrepresented minority dental students: experiences from the dental pipeline program.

Dental educators have been trying to increase enrollment of underrepresented minority (URM) students for many years with limited success. The Pipeline, Profession, and Practice: Community-Based Dental Education program has developed or been affiliated with several innovative strategies for increasing the enrollment of URM students in U.S. dental schools. In March 2005, three promising approaches were discussed at an American Dental Education Association symposium and are described in this article: 1) collaborative recruitment programs based on groups of regional schools; 2) workshops that focus on the effective operation of admissions committees; and 3) a new summer enrichment program for college students interested in dentistry and medicine.

Teaching implant dentistry in the predoctoral curriculum: a report from the ADEA Implant Workshop's survey of deans.

In 2004, a survey of the deans of U.S. and Canadian dental schools was conducted to determine the implant dentistry curriculum structure and the extent of incorporating implant dentistry clinical treatment into predoctoral programs. The questionnaire was mailed to the deans of the fifty-six dental schools in advance of the ADEA Implant Workshop conference held in Arizona in November 2004. Out of the fifty-six, thirty-nine responded, yielding a response rate of 70 percent. Thirty-eight schools (97 percent) reported that their students received didactic instruction in dental implants, while one school (3 percent) said that its students did not. Thirty schools (86 percent) reported that their students received clinical experience, while five schools (14 percent) reported that theirs did not. Four schools (10 percent) did not respond to this question. Fifty-one percent of the students actually receive the clinical experience in restoring implants, with the range of 5-100 percent. Of those schools that provide clinical experience in restoring implants, four schools (13 percent) reported that it is a requirement for them, while twenty-eight schools (88 percent) reported that it is not a requirement for them. Three schools (9 percent) did not respond. The fee for implants is 45 percent higher than a crown or a denture, with a range of 0-100 percent. Twenty-nine schools (85 percent) indicated that they did receive free components from implant companies, while five schools (15 percent) did not. The conclusions of this report are as follows: 1) most schools have advanced dental education programs; 2) single-tooth implant restorations are performed at the predoctoral level in most schools; 3) implant-retained overdenture prostheses are performed at the predoctoral level in most schools; 4) there is no predoctoral clinical competency requirement for surgical implant placement in all schools that responded to the survey; 5) there is no predoctoral clinical competency requirement for implant prosthodontics in most schools that responded to the survey; 6) prosthodontic specialty faculty are often responsible for teaching implant prosthodontics at the predoctoral level; 7) periodontics and oral and maxillofacial faculty are commonly responsible for teaching implant surgery at the predoctoral level; 8) support from implant companies is common for dental schools, with most providing for implant components at discounted costs; and 9) there is a lack of adequately trained faculty in implant dentistry, which is a significant challenge in providing predoctoral students with clinical experience with dental implants.