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University Hosts First National Conference on Nursing, Dental Hygiene Collaboration |
 By hosting the first national conference on oral and systemic health in
Baltimore on Dec. 10, the University of
Maryland, Baltimore (UMB) took another major step toward true
interprofessional health care education, says Jay A. Perman, MD, president of the
University.
More than 120 leading dental hygienists, nurses, other health
professionals, educators in the health professions, and clinical/public
health practitioners attended the conference Oral Systemic Link:
Creating Collaborative Initiatives. Pathways to promote
interprofessional education, research, and practice for dental hygiene
and nursing collaborations were explored.
"This important event on the link of oral and systemic health
highlights trends of working together to help reform our health care
delivery system rather than working alone in our individual
professions," says Perman. "It is a terribly important collaboration
that needs to be developed."
Conference speakers presented extensive and powerful links between oral
health and systemic conditions. Diabetes, osteoporosis, anxiety,
tension, depression, earaches, eating disorders, poor nutrition, and
some cancers "can be identified by, and linked to, conditions in the
oral cavity and head and neck regions." said dental hygienist Jacquelyn Fried, MS, RDH, director
of interprofessional initiatives at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (SOD)
and the conference co-chair (pictured on left with co-chair Shannon Idzik, DNP, MS, CRNP,
assistant professor and Director of the Doctor of Nursing Practice
Program, UM School of Nursing).
"The oral-systemic link highlights commonalities between nursing,
dental hygiene and other health professions. These commonalities lead
to collaborative models, interprofessional models. Why? Because of
shared patient outcomes that promote wellness and the desire for
interprofessional education that develops well-rounded providers," said
Fried.
"We need to re-invent ourselves due to comorbidity," said Christian S. Stohler, DMD, DrMedDent,
dean of the University of Maryland School of Dentistry. "The concept of
co-morbidity is not even understood by our insurance providers, not
addressed. That is one reason our health care system is out of control."
Periodontal disease is often at the center of co-morbidities, said Mark Reynolds, DDS, PhD, MA,
professor and chair of the Department of Periodontics at the dental
school. "Inflammation is one of the ties that bind," Reynolds said, explaining
that periodontal disease is caused by bacterial infections that "are
not only tissue invasive, but cell invasive and found throughout the
body. People don't often know they have it until severe disease is
present."
Reynolds said inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis are
also linked to oral bacteria. "So what?" he said rhetorically. "Well,
the treatment of oral disease, particularly periodontal disease,
reduces hospitalization costs."
Also, Perman, a pediatric gastroenterologist, said that "periodontal
disease has been associated with premature, low-birth-weight babies in
a number of studies. According to these studies, the greater the extent
of maternal periodontal disease, the more likely the mother may have a
premature baby."
JoAnn Gurenlian, RDH, PhD, interim director of the graduate dental
hygiene program at Idaho State University and president-elect of the
International Federation of Dental Hygienists, said that as a dental
hygienist, she sees much more than the average person sees in a smile.
The smile to her is a window into the personýs mouth and body. "The
whole point of what we want to accomplish" in interprofessional
collaboration, Gurenlian said, "is to look at the whole person. Oral
health is health, and we forget that. In nursing, in physical therapy,
in speech pathology, in medicine, in any other [health] group, oral
health is [currently] rarely thought of. And how could that be so?
Students get only an hour of oral health education in their
curriculum."
Judith Haber, PhD, APRN, FAAN, the Ursula Springer Leadership Professor
in Nursing and associate dean of graduate programs at the New York
University College of Nursing, outlined dental hygiene/dental/nursing
educational opportunities, such as nursing students conducting an oral
health history and recognizing normal versus pathological variations of
oral structures. A side-by-side consultation project with
interprofessional students on comprehensive oral-systemic patient
assessments and referrals for systemic health risks would be another
innovation, said Haber, who also discussed collaborative innovations in
pediatrics and summer research projects.
"There were multiple dynamics in play at this conference," said Kathryn Montgomery, PhD, RN, NEA-BC,
associate dean for strategic partnerships and initiatives and associate
professor at the University of Maryland School of Nursing. "There was
clinical content, there were practice issues and interprofessional
education, as well as a new conference-participation approach with full
engagement of participants in 'active learning.'
An educational grant from the Colgate-Palmolive Company supported the
conference.
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| Posting Date: 12/18/2012 |
| Contact Name: Steve Berberich |
| Contact Phone: 410-706-0023 |
| Contact Email: sberb001@umaryland.edu |
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