Dental Hygiene--Bachelor of Science

Program Purpose

The purpose of the Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene program is to prepare students for entry into the dental hygiene profession and additional careers such as public health, research, and marketing. The graduate will be prepared for entry into master's degree programs in dental hygiene and related programs.

Educational Objectives

1. Provide the dental hygiene student the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge, skills, and values to enter the registered practice of dental hygiene
2. Prepare the student to sit for the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination
3. Prepare the student to take the WREB examination in dental hygiene, anesthesia, and restorative.

Expected Student Learning Outcomes

1. The dental hygiene graduate will be competent in applying ethical, legal and regulatory concepts in the provision and/or support of oral health care services.
2. The dental hygiene graduate will be competent in critical thinking and self-assessment.
3. The dental hygiene graduate will be competent in interpersonal and communication skills to effectively interact with diverse population groups.
4. The dental hygiene graduate will be competent in assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating community-based oral health programs including health promotion and disease prevention activities.
5. The dental hygiene graduate will be competent in providing oral health care to individuals at all stages of life and for all periodontal classifications.
6. The dental hygiene graduate will continue professional growth and development after graduation.

Curriculum Map

The curriculum map for the Dental Hygiene bachelor's degree can be found on the program's web page on the OIT web site.

Summary of 2007-08 Student Learning Outcomes

During the 2007-08 academic year, the Dental Hygiene faculty formally assessed the student learning outcome summarized below.  Additional details can be found in the attached assessment report and in department assessment records.

Student learning outcome # 4: The graduate will be competent in providing patient care.

Strengths:

• Students have an adequate number of patient experiences in assessment procedures
• Students are able to use critical thinking and assessment data to reach conclusions about the patient's dental hygiene needs
• Students are able to determine comprehensive dental hygiene care plans that are based on evidence
• Students are well prepared to sit for and pass clinical board examinations
• Students have an adequate number of patient experiences in treating adult and geriatric patients
• Students have an adequate number of patient experiences in treating mild and moderate periodontitis.

Weaknesses:

• Student performance in managing radiographs/digital images, assessing oral hygiene status, and providing alternate treatment plans does not meet expectations
• Student performance in providing appropriate topical fluoride treatments does not meet expectations
• Student experience in nutrition counseling is inadequate
• Student experience in treating some ages and types of periodontal classifications is inadequate.

Action plans:

The department faculty met on Monday, July 14, 2008 to discuss the assessment results. The faculty understands that students must have an adequate number of patient experiences in order to be able to achieve competence. It appears that the most critical improvement needed at this time is to increase the diversity of patient experiences to include more complex cases. More complex cases would also provide students more practice in all learning outcome criteria. Jan Cope proposed and was awarded a grant to develop and implement a patient recruitment plan during summer 2008.

Secondly, the faculty realized that the only assessment data for criterion 4.2 is student reported. The faculty believes a more rigorous assessment measure may provide more meaningful data. In the future, students will be required to make case presentations at each level of the program. Case presentations will be evaluated using a standard grading rubric in order to increase reliability and validity of scores.

Additionally, assessment data clearly indicates students are not adequately evaluating the effectiveness of therapy. More emphasis will be placed on this skill in clinic and in the classroom.

Finally, data from chart audits and DHST is troublesome. The data suggests students may be under- or over- reporting. In order to help achieve consistency in reporting, chart audits will be performed by a committee consisting of trained students and instructors instead of as a class activity. Additionally, the chart audit instrument requires editing and updates. In order to help achieve accurate DHST reporting, students will be required to submit an instructor signed check-off. The signed check-off will be submitted to a designated person to be entered into Typhon.

Changes Resulting from Assessment

Steps have been taken in order to improve students' ability to appropriately manage radiographs. In order to overcome the temptation to take inappropriate radiographs for the patient, specific term requirements have been replaced with yearly goals. Another change has been to replace the radiology clinical assistant with a student radiologist. The student radiologist exposes and assesses all radiographs during the clinic session. This allows the radiology instructor to fully focus attention on supervising one or two students and gives each student equal opportunity to expose images during the term.