Dental Hygiene

Being a Great Clinical Instructor

2009-12-06T12:54:00.000-08:00

This course has helped me to gain an insight on the things that I need to improve on and has allowed me to set goals for myself. The one thing that I will focus on is making sure that I continue to educate myself on how to be a better clinical instructor. Learning how to interact with all the different personalities can be a challenge. I think if you respect and act professional with the students you can never go wrong. I know that even being a student we had to adjust to the different personalities of our full and part time instructors. I never want to be that one instructor that all the students dread to work with. I think it is important to show your students that you love you your profession and that your going to do everything in your power to make sure they succeed and walk away proud.
I want to be an excellent instructor yet a fun one, I know for myself it is always easier to build rapport with students and anyone when you allow yourself to have a little fun. Don't get me wrong , I want my students to still respect me and look up to me. Sometimes I feel like I need to still grow up a little bit even though I have two kids, so this is something I need to work on...but life is to short so I'm not in a big hurry.

Faculty Calibration

2009-11-20T10:17:00.000-08:00

Thinking back to the article, I have mixed feelings of the authors opinion. First of all, I did not realize that we are in danger of not having enough clinical faculty in the near future. I know currently here in the Columbus area we are over populated with hygienist, so that statement was surprising to me. I thought the article was very one sided, in my hygiene experience I did not experience any instructor that wanted to move things quickly. They were very understanding of us being first year students. They took their time in teaching us the appropriate techniques, they not once ever make you feel like we were not fast enough .The instructors did expect more with speed and better techniques in our second year, but that was expected from everyone. I did not agree with the author when she stated it would be a good idea for each instructor to have the same way in teaching calculus detection or the statement that most hygienist are visual learners.There was a point in time when our instructors took a count of how many people learned different ways, and if I remember correctly most of the class raised their hand when " hands on learning" was asked. I would think she would need some research to back up her statement. With the calculus detection she advised that they all use the same technique, posture, pressure and sitting position. I believe that goes against what we just learned, in that everyone learns differently and we may have to modify different techniques in order to help someone learn better. I do feel that the grading aspect of the clinic does need to be more consistent with the faculty. I think that there needs to be a better method for grading that bring the faculty together to think on the same line.

Diversity

2009-11-11T18:55:00.000-08:00

I believe our profession is not very diverse for a couple reasons; as lame as it sounds our title "dental hygienist" sounds very girlie. The same problem goes along with nursing as the book mentions, many men do not want to be called "nurses" it does not sound manly enough.If you think of other professions such as dentist, doctors, teacher, scientist all have titles that can easily fit both genders. I feel age also plays a role as to why it is not diverse in that aspect; our job is very repetitive which can lead to carpal tunnel and boredom. Many older people are aware if this and choose other fields to go into. In my hygiene class we had one male who entered the program for job security. I believe he lasted 3 weeks and felt it was to hard and dropped out, as to how often this happens I am not sure? Another guess to why we lack diversity maybe because we do not put the word out enough in areas that we need to? The classroom setting in low socioeconomic areas at an early age? I believe children start to think about what they want to do when they go up at an early age. If we could go and introduce the profession not only to elementary schools but high schools I think would help increase the interest in men.
I know when I talk to patients about our profession they mention how great it is for women who want kids and the the flexibility that it offers. Which is great, but that does not do anything to attract the men. We need to advertise the benefits of our profession that would entail both genders. I know that the hygiene program at OSU does not encourage students who are looking into the dental program to take hygiene as there minor. I am not sure that I agree with that, I think we would be able to recruit more men and older people if they did choose the hygiene program. They may realize they like this part of dentistry and do not have to go half as long for the schooling.

Communication

2009-11-04T18:05:00.000-08:00

Communication is important and it plays in an important role in our everyday lives. The book mentions that listening is also an important part of communication and I know for myself this is something that I can improve on. As soon as someone communicates with me in a disrespectful manner my first reaction is to show them the same thing. This can also be a challenge in our profession, I have encountered many patients that think they know it all. They try to indicate in that I am wrong in some way and what they are stating makes sense, I laugh to myself and think "seriously I went to school for this". I enjoy reading the different scenarios the book offers. The instructors always respond in a calm professional manner. I do not know that I would have enough self control to stop, think, recognize what was being said, and think about how I would respond calmly. I wonder if this gets better with maturity or experience?

I can not think of a specific encounter in clinic that took place that involved not communicating well, but I will share one that took place in the class room setting. Every year the second year students are responsible for grouping themselves and coming up with a topic for table clinics. The best one would present their table clinic at the annual conferences in Newark. One instructor was responsible for informing us what all the rules and regulations were. The day of our practice run the other instructor asked why we were using name brands on our poster, we looked at her with blanks face and told her we had no idea what she was talking about. She asked who was responsible for informing us of the information. We informed her whom, she shook her head and said she would take care of it. I'm not sure what happened with the conversation between the head instructor and the other instructor but it would have been interesting to see what took place. Our group had to take our poster apart and had to redo it. I feel as a group we handled the situation in a very mature manner we did not start accusing or going off an a rampage for not being provided with the correct information. We allowed the higher up to take control and handle the situation. The instructor did end up apologizing to us and mentioned she though she had told us and it would never happen again.

Accreditation

2009-11-02T18:05:00.000-08:00

Reading this article did make you think about how much work the schools have to put into the dental hygiene programs. The first thing that caught my eye was the how important it is to make sure they have a program administer who is well qualified. I thought maybe they picked someone who had the experience and that was it. According to the article they have set goals and responsibilities they need to follow to fulfil the position. I was a little confused when they mentioned they could only be in that position for no more than two years? I think this requirement is a good idea if it is the case. Rotating the years allow for different views and creativity.

The second thing that really make me think was there were really no set number for how many patients each student had to see? I thought they were responsible for this, they only mentioned needing to see a certain amount. I have heard of different schools having different requirements for how many patients of each classification students need to see. I feel it would be better if all the schools had an same number of patients. This makes some schools seem more competitive than others.

Scenarios

2009-10-26T18:36:00.000-07:00

#1. Mary seems to be a well prepared student with a great attitude and I would encourage her to keep it up. I would tell Mary that she was missing one more important thing in her treatment plan, I would have her go back and read the medical history over. If she still was not able to figure out what it was, I would ask her " What do we need to have the patient do if they have had a joint replacement?" I would then make sure Mary understood why we premed and have her tell me what could happen if we did not to do this. I would take a couple points off for this mistake, I feel the student needs to understand that this is an important matter. I would have Mary tell me why I was taking points off to make sure we were on the same page. I would be the clinic instructor that hopes the students will learn from their mistakes the first time around, the second time around if the same scenario occurs then I would give a lower grade.

#2. It sounds like I had a rough day and I would do my best not to take this out on my students. I would be very patient with Ben and kindly tell him that I found some calculus then have him try to use tactile sensitivity to locate it. If he was not successful, I would sit in his place, show him where I found it, then have him locate it to make sure he could feel it. I would than try to modify his technique to see if that would help him.

Critical Thinking

2009-10-16T14:29:00.000-07:00

Critical thinking in opinion is the ability to solve complex problems, requiring deep thinking while challenging your reasoning. I feel this assignment takes some critical thinking in how to help others think critically. What I got out of the handbook concerning this topic was how to ask and answer questions to make one apply the knowledge they have retained. I know that in clinic our instructors made us critically think whenever we had patients who were on medications. If the patient were on a certain medication we had to look it up in the medical dictionary to determine exactly what it was used for and learn about the side effects. If they had anything that seemed unusually in the mouth then we were responsible for finding out what it was and how we could fix it. For every new medication we had to make a flash card and be prepared to use it if any problems ever occurred. I can recall a time when I had a patient that had Alzheimer's disease, he could not hold his toothbrush, he could not understand a thing I was saying and he had the mentality of a three year old. Being a first year student this was a challenge for me, not only cleaning his teeth but putting a treatment plan together. The instructor asked me questions such as " What different techniques can we use in order to get his teeth cleaned and are there any ideas we can use to help him brush his teeth daily at home?" I ended up having to use a bite block each time he came in and we involved his wife with his home care.

I think we can help students critically think by picking one patient each morning who will be challenging in some way and having the students all come up with how they could make it better than discussing it at the end of the day. This would require critical thinking throughout the day and the opportunity to help each other. It would also allow the students to see other students perspective bringing out some creativity. I think it is important to know your students and figure out how each one learns in order to decide what is going to be a challenge for that student. What may be critical thinking for someone may not be for another. In our second year of clinic we had an opportunity to work with a home health care center for the mentally handicapped. We were in groups of three and each group was assigned a person. We had to analyze this patient and decide mentally where they were, and what they were capable of doing physically. We spent several hours talking and getting to know them. We had to figure out what they needed to improve on orally and we had to come up with ideas on how we could get them to remember what they needed to improve. We presented our cases to our classmates and shared the appliances that were modified for each individual. Critical thinking was definitely something we had to use.

My Dental Hygiene Clinic

2009-10-09T10:06:00.000-07:00

First of all, my hygiene clinic would not look like a clinic. I want to make people feel at home, so it would be very colorful. The rooms would be private with flat screens, ear phones, massage chairs, and beautiful murals on the walls. The students would be able to wear whatever color scrubs they want as long as it looked professional, new, clean and pressed. The students would each have an assistant to help tare down and set up the rooms after each patient. We would have the combination of new advanced technology along with old technology so when the students went out in the real world they would be comfortable using both. We would have the manuel processor for films and have the digital systems. We would have washers and dryers located in the clinic where someone could wash, dry and have them ready for us the next day. The clinic would be separate from the rest of the college, it would be all glass windows. The lunch area would look like the mall food court where you have many choices to choose from. We would have a gym and a work out area to use between classes and clinics.

The rules and regulations would would be altered somewhat but for the most part remain the same. Everyone needs to respect each other, show up on time, be prepared to work hard, be professional, and love what you do! I would hire dentist and hygienist with five years or more of private practice experience. My clinical instructors would be more on the young side with experience ( we had to many older grumpy people in our clinics!). The instructors would be on a year trail, I figure by then you can tell if someone loves what they or not .I would have famous guest speakers such as authors of dental books, founders of dental schools, dentist who work with the rich and famous to relate experiences.

I would allow students to have turns being clinical instructors to help and learn from each other. The law would be in place where hygienist could go outside to nursing homes to provide treatment allowing the students to achieve more experiences and having no problem meeting requirements. We would also be able to perform duties at schools just as long as they had a dentist with them. The requirements would remain the same, we need something to motivate the students and we want to be good at what we do, not take short cuts.

Being a Great Clinic Instructor

2009-10-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

There are many different opinions on what an excellent clinical instructor is. I have one word that I believe sums it all up and that is someone who is passionate about what they are teaching. I truly believe if someone is passionate about something, they do everything in their power to pass this passion on to others. If someone is not passionate in the clinical setting they are not going to take interest in students, they are going to have a poor attitude, they are not going to care whether you pass or fail. I can remember several times in my experience where some clinical faculty not knowing that we could heard them, sitting in the lab saying they could be doing better things with their time. In my opinion if this is how you feel then go do that "better" something. The last thing students want to hear is that you do not want to be in their presences.

The particular clinical instructor that I thought was excellent most students would beg to differ, and it took me after I graduated to realize that she was the one that made the most impact on me. Why would other students beg to differ? She had a very strong bold personality and communicated in such way that would make some students cry. No one really ever cried, she was just to the point and knew what she expected from each student. She did not judge you and she did provide constructive criticism just in a different manner. I remember thinking in clinical " I hope I do not have this particular instructor today" yet at the same time ,I knew that I had to know everything perfectly. Did the article last week not say that the students preferred an instructor who knew what they were doing and made the students aware of expectations? This instructor was on time each day and very efficient. We never had to wait on her for anything which was important because we wanted to get as much done as fast as we could. If anyone was more aware of understanding the curriculum she was it! If you did not know what other classes you needed to take she could give you the list of courses that were being offered on campus. That was the thing with this instructor, she knew your needs and would do anything for you. I started off being afraid of this instructor but after graduation I knew that if I ever wanted to be a clinical instructor she would be the one I would want follow.

I believe I carry many attributes that would lead me to be an excellent clinical instructor, yet at the same time I still have many that I would need to work on. Patience is one of them, I need to understand that the students are not going to get things down on the first try! Life would be mush easier if they did but unfortunately it is not reality. I believe being a role model is very important, not only in the clinical setting but every day life. I have a very laid back easy-going personality and sometimes I forget that people such as my family, friends and co-workers look up to me as a role model. I believe we are all capable of being excellent clinical instructors we just need to except the fact that no one is perfect and through our experiences we will become better each day!!

2009-09-26T07:20:00.000-07:00

The fact that someone took the time to do such research among the different dental schools says a great deal. It sends a message that there are people out there that care about the way schools conduct their curriculum. I felt like the research was fair and the students felt like they were being listened to and their opinions mattered.
It was an eye opener to see how many students had the same experiences on what were the strengths and the weaknesses of their curriculum. The article mentioned that most of the students felt like the best instructors were the ones that were straight forward with what was expected form each student. I completely agree, I feel like students are like little children who need guidance and structure. They look up to their instructors for this and feel lost and disappointed when things are disorganized.
The article mentioned that the clinical "hands on" experience was the most valued strength for the students and was also for me. The hands on experience is best way for me to learn, I feel the more time we get working on patients the better. Most of my instructors had passion for what they were teaching and it showed. They seemed organized and were available when we needed them.
Poor teaching methods and lack of communication between clinical faculty was a weakness for the our hygiene program but not on a regular basis. There was one faculty member who had horrible teaching methods. We always wondered where she was getting her information because you could not find it in the book. She was released of her duties the second year into our program.
As for opportunities I feel like our school did a nice job giving us a variety of different experiences outside school setting. I think for a two year program we received an adequate amount of time with patients.
The dental students in the article felt like the schools we requirement driven, in which I also agree. I remember students being really stressed out because they had not seen enough patients or had not gotten enough procedures done. I have mixed feeling about requirements, I feel like if we did not have these expectations then students would take advantage of the situation. I look at it as motivation for us to get the experience we need to make out in the real world.
The role for instructors I feel is to be passionate about what you are doing. I feel they need to be available when needed and take us under their wing. I think it is important to remember that we look up to them and are taking everything in that is going to make us a better professional. They need to remember that they are not going to please everyone no matter what you do, but if you love your job it is going to show.

May 2007, Journal of Dental Education