Departmental Assessment Update - Nursing and Dental Hygiene Report
Department: Dental Hygiene
Program: BS
Level: Undergraduate
1. List in detail your undergraduate Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) for each degree/certificate offered.
In August 2006, a diverse group, administrators, faculty, staff and students of the University of Hawaii at Manoa’s (UHM) Department of Dental Hygiene and administrators of the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene; constituencies within the University of Hawaii System; professional organizations, the American Dental Hygienists’ Association, the Hawaii Dental Hygienists’ Association, and the Hawaii Dental Association; and other national and international interest groups (University of Washington and Sendai Dental Hygiene School-Japan), agreed upon a mission statement for the baccalaureate degree dental hygiene program offered at the UHM as follows: “Our mission is to educate future dental hygiene professionals who will be committed to improving the oral health of the community”. The undergraduate program, the only dental hygiene program in the State of Hawaii, meets the Accreditation Standards for Dental Hygiene Education Programs of the Commission on Dental Accreditation, American Dental Association. Graduates who meet didactic as well as clinical and interpersonal competencies sit for the National Board Dental Hygiene and the Central Regional Dental Testing Service, Inc.’s ADEX examinations for certification as registered dental hygienists and licensure.
The UHM dental hygiene curriculum provides students with knowledge and opportunity to develop competencies required to perform dental hygiene functions consistent with the UHM’s mission based on goals, resources, current cognitive and practice skills, and permissible dental hygiene practice responsibilities and standards. Educational objectives developed encompass cognitive, affective and psychomotor areas and are best described in terms of changes in student behavioral practices. SLO’s identified in 2005 include: cognitive goals/competence in the subject area of dental hygiene and related coursework measured by tests; student clinical evaluation at off-campus facilities measured by student performance evaluation; student progression/attrition/completion measured by attrition/completion rates; student clinical dental hygiene competence which include application of theory to dental hygiene practice measured by pass rate/scores on National Board Dental Hygiene and ADEX examinations; graduate educational goals and objectives and relevance of educational experiences to practice and satisfaction measured by Graduate Survey; employer satisfaction with graduate performance and preparation program measured by Employer Survey; employment opportunities as measured by employment survey; patient satisfaction of experiences related to quality of care and service measured by Patient Satisfaction Survey; and curriculum/courses themes of Professionalism, Oral Health Care , and Health Promotion and Disease Prevention satisfaction measured by course/faculty review using Course and Faculty Evaluation (CAFÉ).
2. Where are these SLOs published (e.g., department web page)?
The SLO’s are published in the self-study report to the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Specific SLO’s are addressed in the publication, University of Hawaii Measuring Our Progress 2004 Update. The SLO’s guide the dental hygiene curriculum and are the basis for didactic, clinical and affective competencies.
3. Explain how your SLOs map onto your curriculum, i.e., how does your curriculum produce the specific SLOs in your students?
The curriculum is designed to meet SLOs. The first two years require broad training in basic scientific disciplines such as Physiology and Human Anatomy, Biochemistry/Chemistry, Microbiology and Food Sciences and Human Nutrition as well as the arts and humanities, social sciences, written and oral communication, symbolic reasoning, and global and multicultural perspectives. In the three year major area, students enroll in courses in the didactic and clinical/interpersonal areas of dental hygiene and dental science. Goals and objectives are of increasing complexity as the student progresses through the curriculum and address established SLOs and related graduate competencies.
4. What specific methodologies were used to collect data? In developing your response, consider the following questions:
In the two years prior to admission to the major area, interested applicants, including those enrolled at the Manoa Campus as well as other campus sites, are encouraged to meet with faculty advisors. Faculty advisors conduct academic advising evaluations each of the three years in the major area. Dental hygiene students are assigned faculty advisors to track progression to graduation and to offer counsel and/or direction to appropriate counsel available at the Manoa campus. This addresses student need as well as attrition/progression issues. Personnel from the Office of Student Services at the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene are currently developing a network interface with the Manoa Campus’ database to enable more efficient utilization of available data needed to provide academic advising.
Grades for dental hygiene majors cannot be Cr/Nc. The dental hygiene student must maintain a 2.0 grade point average in dental hygiene courses as well as a 2.0 cumulative grade point average at the University of Hawaii at Manoa.
CAFÉ Evaluations are used to assess teaching effectiveness as well as coverage of course content, particularly in team-taught courses with multiple sections.
Clinical Examinations and Graded Cases and clinical evaluations provide student and faculty with an assessment of student clinical/critical evaluative skills at a specific point in time. The examination data as well as follow-up prescriptive activities prepare students for the licensing examination, ADEX, administered by the Central Regional Dental Testing Service. Students provided clinical dental hygiene services at the University of Hawaii Dental Hygiene Clinic in Hemenway Hall and at various affiliating sites such as at the Queen’s Medical Center, Spark Matsunaga Veteran’s Dental Clinic, and Dental Clinic-Pearl Harbor Naval Base. Student performance at the various clinical sites are evaluated.
The National Board Dental Hygiene Examination, a written examination, and the Central Regional Dental Testing Services, Inc’s ADEX examination’s written component must be successfully passed for licensure to practice dental hygiene in the State of Hawaii.
Graduate and Employer Surveys. The graduate and employer surveys are administered once every five to seven years due to the small size of each class, approximately twenty students (class size is based on accreditation standards and regulatory issues relating to faculty/student ratios, clinical supervisory requirements, and facility limitations). The surveys address educational experience relevance and satisfaction; satisfaction with performance of graduates of the educational program.
5. How were the assessment data/results used to inform decisions concerning the curriculum and administration of the program?
Although today’s students are “technology” users and as such may anticipate use of technology in the practice of dental hygiene, they are provided basic cognitive and clinical skills necessary to practice in the private sector. When exposed to technology such as digital x-ray equipment, they are able to make diagnostically acceptable exposures with the already acquired cognitive and clinical skills as they quickly learn operation of the new equipment piece.
Negative response to patient, graduate and employer surveys are infrequent; pass rates for National Board Dental Hygiene and ADEX examinations are good. Thus, there have been little need to change the curriculum and/or the administration of the program. However, the Curriculum Committee has formalized inclusion of both didactic and clinical aspects of dental hygiene services for patients with need for variations in treatment protocol (e.g. the geriatric patient, the patient with addiction considerations, the patient with special medical and psycho-social-cultural needs).
At this time, the Curriculum Committee is evaluating need to develop, perhaps in consultation or with the assistance of the Microbiology department or the School of Medicine, a course in inflammation and the immune response to better link the existing general and oral histology, general and oral pathology, and periodontology courses which impact the provision of clinical dental hygiene services for the patient presenting complex involvement.
6. Has the program developed learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.
Yes.
7. Has the program published learning outcomes? Please indicate yes or no.
Yes.
8. If so, please indicate how the program has published learning outcomes.
The student learning outcomes are published in the self-study report to the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Students are provided a listing of graduate competencies as part of the Department of Dental Hygiene, Department and Clinical Guidelines.
9. What evidence is used to determine achievement of student learning outcomes?
The following are used:
· Written and clinical examinations administered as a part of each dental hygiene course
· Student performance evaluation at off-campus and on-site facilities
· Student progression/attrition/graduation
· Pass rate success on the National Board Dental Hygiene Examination(written examination) and Central Regional Dental Testing Services, Inc.’s ADEX examination (written and clinical)
· Patient Satisfaction Survey at University of Hawaii Dental Hygiene Clinic
· Relevance and satisfaction of educational experience as measured by Graduate Survey
· Employer satisfaction with graduate performance and preparation as measured by Employer Survey
· Course and faculty evaluation as measured by University of Hawaii CAFÉ evaluation
· Student success as measured by attrition/progression/graduation rates
10. Who interprets the evidence?
The faculty of the Department of Dental Hygiene interprets the available data and makes modifications to curriculum as necessary. The data is shared with administrators of the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene and the University of Hawaii at Manoa, who may make recommendations which are considered and/or incorporated in modification considerations..
11. What is the process of interpreting the evidence?
Data is reviewed and interpreted by the faculty of the Department of Dental Hygiene, all of whom are members of the Curriculum Committee. Additionally, faculty are members of the Personnel, Admission, Health and Safety Committees and thus, there is a mechanism to carry over issues from one committee to another. Again, administrators of the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene and the University of Hawaii at Manoa may make recommendations which are considered and/or incorporated.
12. Indicate the date of last program review.
The American Dental Association, Commission on Dental Accreditation’s last site review was conducted October 2001. The next site visit is scheduled for October 2008.
The University of Hawaii-Manoa Council on Program Reviews, Summary Report for the School of Nursing and Dental Hygiene was issued on March 10, 2004.