One last time...

This is probably my last post to this blog. The class has been great and fun to synthesis what we have learned previously into projects for this course. One of the significant learnings for me in this course has been that feedback is important and that a group unified on a project can really make some signficant and valuable changes. Here is hoping that one day I can find a job teaching in an enviroment that values collaboration and thrives on achieving goals of unity.

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Loved the rain today...my yard was thirsty. The rain today made for a perfect nap and then onto the daily encounter. I'm looking forward to seeing all of my classmates great ideas. It's fun to see how different we all approach an assignment and yet each adds so much value. Looks like I won't be able to make it to class tomorrow. This will be my first missed DH class the entire year. I think I only missed ESPY/measurement once last semester. Somehow I can't seem to get past my OCD of thinking I can do it all; however, my son has his voice "juries" tomorrow and it turns out parents attend. He is singing an Italian piece. He looked relieved when I told him I would stay home. Sorry to miss class...I'll look forward to being with you at our last one.

The OSCE Rush

Kim and Cooke did such a great job last week! They really set the standard high for the rest of us presenting this week. Thanks to Jackie, Kjersta and I are off to a good start with her great suggestions for the clinic map and timing. Designing a film mounting OSCE was simple, yet evertime I look at it, I think of some other aspect that should be considered. It will be fun to see Lisa put some of these OSCEs into practice in the future. I guess the real test of how well I did with mine would be when the students actually take the exam.
See you all tomorrow!

After reading your blogs, I see everyone has enjoyed our beautiful weekend and Easter activities. I tried to get my son to hunt for eggs only to find out he was interested in it if there was money involved. What can I expect from a 17 year old? I must admit I still think of him as "my boy" even though he is really a young man. With school work on my mind, I broke tradition for Easter dinner and grilled steaks. No one complained and we had a nice meal so I am now buckling down to do school work.

I worked on my clinic assessment sheet last week and had fun with that project. I tried to create a rubric. I think it works but will really look forward to your feedback. It is always helpful to have fresh eyes looking at a project. As for the Q & A...I'm thinking of creating a community partner evaluation for service -learning. I have to pull out my service-learning pile and start to generate ideas for what would be important to know. I'm looking forward to Kim and Cooke's OSCE tomorrow. I think seeing more examples will help me solidify mine. Thanks girls for going first!

Spring Fever

After reading each of your blogs, I see that we all have Spring Fever. I didn't get to work on anything this weekend. Church and family obligations kept me hopping. My solution...I am packing up and heading to Minneapolis for the next three nights, returning home on Thursday. With my husband home more, he can hold down the fort and I am going somewhere quiet so I can work! See you in class.
Brenda

Is it really Spring? I have sat at my desk all morning looking out the window hoping the ice on the lake would melt. It sure doesn't look like spring from this view. The house is quiet and I am trying to get a few things done before my son returns from his spring break trip tonight.

I have been working on my OSCE, calibration, etc. I can definitely see why feedback is important when it comes to the development of these. I will look forward to some peer review. I also tried to start a daily student/patient encounter form. All I can say for that is..."Yikes!" I like Mankato's example but would like to simplify a little. I am hoping to see a few more examples before I attempt it again.

Hope everyone is enjoying the weekend. See you on Monday.

My posture/ergonomics assessment is nearly complete; however, I really wish I had pictures for faculty calibration and teaching. So Friday I had this grand plan...I will take my own. I threw on some scrubs and ran down to an office where I temp occassionally (at the end of their day) and had another hygienist take pictures of me. What a mistake!!! First off, I hadn't slept all week. Second, there is a reason that only younger dental hygienists are used as models in the journals and magazines. Third...no one ever likes to look at pictures of themselves. I showed them to my husband. His response: "Oh, my...you look like your mother." What is that supposed to mean? I now have a better appreciation of professional photographers and photo shop.

Continuous Care of Patients - one school's protocol

I was able to get a hold of my contact to understand her school's tracking system of continuous care patients. I will be interested to see what everyone finds out from their schools. See below for the feedback I received.

Our patients are tracked through several systems. The computer tracks completion of DH care and movement into the undergrad/grad dental clinics for continuing care. Each dental student has a clinic records coordinator(CRC). DH has a Patient appointment coordinator who functions the same way. This is part of the Quality Assurance (QA) process. The CRCs audit charts periodically for each of their assigned students for such issues as timeliness of care, faculty signatures on treatment plans andSOAP/progress notes, medical history updates, and radiology assessment byfaculty. In DH, we (as clinic coordinators) and our PAC, monitor these issues on the clinic floor and run computer queries to check for patient completion and recall information.If a patient is referred to a graduate clinic (endo, perio, oral surgery),it is up to the individual student to track the patient's process of care. Students are not always assigned the same patients for their next recall. Our DH PAC is responsible for appointing recall patients for DH, secondyear dental recall clinics and vertically-integrated group practice (D-2,D-3, & D-4 students). We are hoping that next year there will be DH-4students in the group practice settings.The QA process has benchmarks for patient care. The School QA committee has worked hard over the last 15-20 years to develop a protocol to ensure continuing quality service for each patient. Patient consent, HIPAA documentation, timeliness of care, completion of oral disease control therapies, and completion of Phase I and Phase II dental needs areintegral aspects of the process. We strive to surpass the benchmarks foreach of these areas. The CRCs report each semester on progress towards our benchmarks. QA committee members bring information back to their academic units to make changes in curriculum or clinic procedures to assist in improving patient care.

Collaboration - we need more of it!

This week I met with Lisa to discuss the ergonomics assessment. I am excited that the project might be able to help with a course that Lisa will teach in the summer. (Joy has been a wonderful help giving me feedback and resources.) We were trying to figure out how we could get pictures of correct ergonomic positions without violating copyright laws. Another faculty member (a clinical instructor) happened to be listening in on the conversation and it turns out that she also has written and taught about ergonomics. She has pictures that she thinks we can use. Hurray!! There are many talented people at the U of M School of Dentistry. Wouldn't it be great if we shared and collaborated more? I think this would benefit the student, instructors, and the school. Collaboration on this project is helping me immensely.

Ergonomics Anyone??

Hi Fellow Assessment and Protocol Designers: I have been working on my ergonomics assessment. The scanner won't work to insert pictures...so I guess I will reference everyone to the correct text and we will go from there. I really think I need some type of graphics software to add the right pictures. Does anyone have any ideas? As I type this, I am stressing over studying or preparing dinner for my husband's birthday along with 15 youth to arrive at my home tonight. Sleep tonight will just have to wait. See you tomorrow.

So Much to do...so little time!

I am working on the clinical assessment for ergonomics. Whew! I think I bit off more than I can chew. With so many good things to read, I feel like I need to dissect it all first before I can pull the assessment together. I will bring to class what I have been learning. What do you think proper ergonomics would look like cleaning this guy's teeth?

Contact from my almamater - Go WEBER!

I emailed my first year instructor, Frances McConaughy, at Weber State regarding our first assignment. She had a huge influence on me. She use to call me the "swarthy brunette". (Only my colorist knows the truth!) It was our first year in the program and her first year of teaching, and boy was she tough! She is still at WSU and was kind enough to respond. Below are her comments regarding their clinic.

1. What is your job description? A clinic coordinator in our institution has responsibility for supervising students as well as adjunct faculty that are affiliated with their clinics. They have huge coordination responsibilities, and since they are faculty appointments, they also have teaching responsibilities. So they have both clinical teaching and classroom or didactic teaching responsibilities. These, obviously, correspond with the level of student, so a junior coordinator has more introductory material to cover, ie. instrumentation, pt. mgmt., caries control to name a few. The senior coordinator will have advanced instrumentation, more perio management, etc.

2. Who in your faculty is in charge of clinic protocols? Really, all faculty have input, including our adjuncts. But the primary responsibility should lie with the clinic coordinators, this too is part of their job description.

3. How does your school train and calibrate faculty? Who does it? We have regular faculty calibration meetings which are held for both junior and senior faculty including adjuncts. We generally choose topics, ie. classifying patients, evaluating radiographs, etc. and then have exercises--ie. what would you do/or how would you score/evaluate this particular situation and then we talk about this. But often, the discussion defaults to reminders of clinic protocols, because there is so much to manage and oversee.

4. Who is responsible for communication of clinic protocols? The clinic coordinators are primarily responsible for this, to students and to adjunct faculty. However, we also try to note all policies/protocols in the clinic manual which is a major reference for both junior/senior classes and faculty. We update this annually.

5. Who keeps track of student progress? Who keeps track of student
clinic grades? The junior/senior coordinators keep track of progress and/or the other contract faculty. We do not have adjuncts, generally speaking, keep track of this. The faculty also have regular conferences with the students to track their progress.

Clinic Coordinator and Management at VCU

I emailed my questions to Joan Pellegrini RDH, MS, PhD - Associate Professor. I was amazed at her quick response. She answered me within an hour! Amazing with her schedule as you will see from what she shared below.

Before I get to the questions, I just wanted to clarify my academicresponsibilities. In addition to instruction of dental hygiene students,I direct courses and mentor freshmen & sophomore dental students in DentalLiterature Review. It is a departure from the dental hygiene curriculum,but it is now getting future dentists to think like dental hygienists!
On to your queries:
1. My academic description encompasses course direction for preclinictheory (DENH 301), clinical dental hygiene I (DENH 327), preventive oralhealth education (DENH 312), and dental hygiene theory IV--practicemanagement (DENH 402). I provide clinical instruction in the dental hygiene clinic, with a sophomore dental student recall clinic, and see private patients in the School of Dentistry Faculty Practice.What you may be most interested in for your course/interview, is that I provide management for the DH clinic. In that responsibility, I am solely in charge of ordering supplies for clinic use. Many items are provided through the instrument management system in the dental school, but preventive supplies, maintenance items and repair work orders come under my purview. Our clinic appointment clerk assists me in reporting equipment repair needs and facilities management issues. As designated junior clinic coordinator, I arrange for in-school rotation assignments and clinical assignments and monitor clinic progress for each junior student.
2. Clinical protocols have been set by previous coordinators. They are updated, and are discussed by those faculty involved in directing clinical courses--with input from other full-time faculty, part-time faculty and students. The ultimate decisions rest with the designated clinic coordinators. Right now, we are grooming a junior full-time faculty member to take over my roles in clinic management as my teaching responsibilities on the dental side of the house increase.
3. Clinic protocols are communicated through the clinical courses, and are contained in a clinic notebook available on the clinic floor.Individual items regarding specific responsibilities and protocols are provided on our course BlackBoard sites (.pdf format), discussed in class,(if technique oriented) demonstrated in class/clinic. We are building an electronic clinic manual (specific to DH, apart from the School ofDentistry Clinic Manual), but have not finalized the eVersion. It has been our summer project for several years, but has not yet been finalized. Summers are used for planning by full-time faculty. But classes commence around the last week of July for the fall semester, so just as we get our syllabi and course materials together, its time to welcome students.
4. Faculty calibration might be a bit easier at our school, since the majority of our faculty are graduates of this program. Each semester,clinical course directors mentor hands-on instrumentation and technique sessions to get all clinical faculty "on the same page." Assessment rubrics with qualified/quantified evaluation descriptors are updated (as needed) and provided in hard/electronic copy to the clinical faculty."Huddles" before clinic occur frequently, especially during the preclinical instruction, so that all faculty are together on their teaching role for that session.
5. Clinic course directors track student progress and clinic assessment.In our school, we have a customized WinDent program to track patient demographics, appointment scheduling, recall, to use for patient chart (SOAP) notes. Student progress is recorded by treatment provided, and coded competency requirements for each student. Faculty (with administrative rights to the system) can pull up student reports to view progress through the semester.We also have a system of "Clinic reports and commendations" designed to provide feedback to students--and get their response--before the end ofthat particular clinic session. The form records aspects of patient care that the DH student must master. Incident reports can be generated for behaviors that are below the expected standard; but commendations can begiven for outstanding behavior/patient care on the same form. We have recently instituted a "Process of Care" checklist to use to mentor each student. With a faculty member sitting in the cubicle observing as tudent, they can assess all aspects of care provided, giving intense feedback to the observed student. These assessments are not punitive, but are intended to provide critique of student performance. Student self-evaluation is being brought into clinical assessment more this year.The faculty are asking students to do self-assessment in a more formal manner, intending to provide a model for continuous quality improvement after graduation. Forms and methods have been implemented this year from information received from faculty in other schools across the country. GodBless Networking!

I feel like a novice trying to just understand clinic management and responsibilities of coordinators/directors to respond well to her comments. I was a little surprised that calibration is not an issue because majority of faculty are graduates of the same institution. I also found it interesting that faculty needs to track supplies and repair issues. Does that occur at the U of M?

My first day in class...

Today begins my course in Clinic Administration.