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- Title
Practicum experience to socialize dental hygiene students into long term care settings.
- Authors
Compton, Sharon M.; Cobban, Sandra J.; Kline, Lisa A .
- Abstract
Introduction: A s the population ages, educational health care programs must increase efforts to provide geriatric health knowledge to students and to socialize them into settings such as long term care (LT C). Methods: A new practicum was developed in which dental hygiene (DH) students were scheduled onsite in LT C facilities. A guiding objective for the practicum was to socialize students into this environment by providing them with practical knowledge and experience that could give them the confidence, attitudes, and desire to work with this population upon graduation. T his study provides a qualitative analysis of data acquired from focus groups with the students and from individual interviews with the registered dental hygienist (R DH) instructors who guided them. R esults: S ix main themes were identified from the student focus group data: 1) communication challenges between students and LT C staff; 2) communication challenges between students and LT C residents; 3) uncertainty about follow up for oral health recommendations; 4) barriers to provision of daily mouthcare; 5) uneasiness of students in LT C environment; and 6) appreciation for the practicum experience. T ranscripts from the R DH interviews revealed two themes: 1) challenges in the facility context; and 2) challenges and enhancements for student learning. D iscussion: F rom these results, we determined that changes need to be made to the practicum, including: providing more classroom preparation before the practicum; beginning the practicum earlier in the year to provide students with more experience; arranging onsite visits to correspond to the schedules of the residents and staff; improving and increasing interactions between students and LT C staff; and developing and establishing clear protocols for what students should do under specific conditions, and how their recommendations for residents can be implemented. Conclusion: W e believe that the practicum successfully contributed to the socialization of DH students into the LT C environment by building their awareness of the complexities of working in this context with this population.
- Publication
Canadian Journal of Dental Hygiene, 2013, Vol 47, Issue 2, p61
- ISSN
1712-171X
- Publication type
Academic Journal