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Blog Post 13 (Last One!):  I want you to pretend you are a clinical instructor right now. What is one thing you would focus on to make yourself a great clinical instructor? What things are you able to do to make a great educational experience for students?
Have fun, be creative. I look forward to reading your answers.

One thing I would focus on as a clinical instructor to be a great instructor, is that I would teach my students all the tips I was taught that made clinic easier for me. Simple things like using the 204S on lower anteriors, positioning the patient’s chair semi-upright to see direct linguals on the mandibular teeth, and other tricks of the trade. I was actually just doing a teaching experience for the juniors in clinic and I got to share the tip about the chair position to one of the girls. It made me feel so good to have taught someone something, and something that is so valuable too. I remember all the instructors who taught me skills that I use today. I hope that hygiene girl will remember me and how my tip helped her from there on. I would also be an easy-going instructor. Sometimes teachers can come across as unapproachable and stern, I want the students to be able to discuss questions and topics with me. I was many times stressed because of the instructor I got in clinic (especially when taking an instrument competency) from their demeanor and would perform worse from being anxious around them. I want students to feel comfortable around me and think of me there as only to help not judge in a negative way.

One of the quotes from the article we read this week for class discussed want makes a great clinical instructor. I like what they wrote and I agree classroom learning and clinical learning are very different. “Instructors can have a potentially greater influence on dental and dental hygiene students’ learning in clinic than in classroom settings.”

Like the article say’s, clinical teachers have a different environment of educating their students. There is a close relationship and teamwork that must be in play while in clinic. I enjoy working with students and being on a team with other hygiene students. From the article I also agree that I would want to be an instructor that is a role model for students, enthusiastic, motivating, and fair.

Blog Post 12: So let’s say that you have been offered a position as a clinical instructor at a dental hygiene program. You are really excited for this new opportunity. What are the two things that you are most concerned about? Why are you concerned about these issues. What more would you want to know before starting a position as a clinical instructor? Hopefully some of you will find yourself in this situation soon, and you never know when you’ll have to look back at all the things you have learned in your career.

One thing I would be most concerned about starting a new job as a clinical instructor is protection of myself from malpractice suits. I’m concerned about this because as a clinical instructor, I am responsible for the care my students give and I would be the one to get into trouble if anything happened. I hope to never get a malpractice suit against me ever. I would want to know if I needed to provided malpractice insurance or if the school would

Blog Post 10: after reading the article, post your reaction to the article. Do you agree with the article, do you disagree and why? Looking forward to reading your responses.

The article I read from a dental hygiene magazine was very surprising to me. I both agree and disagree with things stated in the article. The things I disagree with are the use of the term “seasoned and slow” being over used throughout the article. This term for experienced full time faculty is unprofessional and demeaning. I’m not sure why the writer believes that all full time instructors that teach in a clinical are all slow in the work they do compared to part time private practice instructors. The article also is saying that the “new and fast” instructors grade differently than the others, that they speed through check points, and teach students fast exploring. This is all wrong! The writer makes it seem as if the new part time faculty don’t care as much and just want to get the patient in and out of the chair instead of teaching. Also that they all teach students to explore incorrectly by giving them the idea that fast is correct and not boring. The whole article went back and forth stating what was wrong and horrible about both faculty and none of the things they said were right. This article was one person’s opinion and should not have been published in a professional organizations journal for everyone to read as fact. The one thing I do agree with in the article is to calibrate the diverse faculty so that they can give more reliable grades and feedback. That’s it.

Blog Post 11: I want you to answer the question from the Access article, What does diversity mean to you? Why do you think dental hygiene lacks diversity? What suggestions do you have for increasing diversity in dental hygiene?

Diversity to me means the individual differences between every person. This can mean age, race, gender, etc, but even more things than that. For example I grew up in a small town and someone else may have been from a big city; this is another diversity between us. Diversity can be things I mentioned before that are not changeable, but also things that can be changed about a person. Even though I grew up in a small town, I go to one of the largest universities in the country. I have now experienced a more diverse city and community, there I am more diverse than I used to be. I believe the differences between people are important and it’s what makes life interesting and new every day. Like Michael Long said in the access magazine, “Diversity to me means to coexist. Coexistence means multiple groups purposely living together peacefully and non-violently, despite differences in ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation and politics.” This is a great quote from the article that I wanted to point out. It goes along with what I was saying about living together even though we have differences because that’s life. No two people are the exact same and diversity is something we must experience.

Things evolve over time and change, this is a fact. The same goes for all careers, even dental hygiene. But for some careers like hygiene, they don’t evolve very quickly. Dentistry in general in Ohio is very slow moving and I believe it’s because for the most part Ohio is a conservative state. Therefore a great deal of Ohio’s society follow the same conservative views as the people before them. Hygienists were predominantly Caucasian females and it’s just taking a longer time to step away from this stereotype. I believe we as a society have been improving our ideals and the world of hygiene is changing in a positive direction. I believe colleges should be the one’s responsible to reach out and try to appeal to all students at the university and do their best to accept more qualified diversity in the hygiene programs.

Blog Post 9: I want you to write about what surprised you the most in your readings this week.  Was there something in the documents that you were unaware of or was there something that explained a certain procedure or policy in your clinics? Write about those items and describe why you found them to be surprising, interesting, or intriguing.

This week I read an article that stated all the different procedures and policies a college must follow to be considered an accredited school. Honestly I was not surprised by any of the requirements. This may be because in my junior year at the College of Dentistry, we went through an accreditation and I learned a lot about this subject and how it works. We went through a mock on before the real site visit, therefore a lot of the topics in the reading were things I was already aware of. But before the accreditation there were a few things I didn’t know that a college had to have. Some things like, 3-6 (faculty to student ratios may not exceed one to five) and  3-7 (full time faculty must have at least a baccalaureate degree). All of these make sense to me but it was never something I had thought about before in clinic. 2-6,2-14,2-16,2-17,2-18,and 4-1 were all basic and nothing surprising to me while reading them. Also we kind of knew most of these requirements early in our program because we would ask a lot of, “why do we to learn/do this,” types of questions in class and clinic and the instructors would tell us for accreditation. So even though I wasn’t surprised by the requirements listed for accreditation, I believe that’s a good thing because our school did a great job informing us and teaching us what they were and why we needed to do them.

#1 You are working with several students in the dental hygiene clinic. Mary (for lack of a better name) comes to you and checks in the patient’s medical history and vital signs with you. Mary is a good student and always seems to be on the ball in clinic. She has a good attitude and has developed great rapport with her patients. She indicates that the patient had a total knee replacement six months ago and that he has hypertension, which is controlled by medicaiton. Mary tellls you that the vitals signs are normal and shows you the readings which are all within normal range. She then proceeds to ask you to sign for radiographs and wants to begin her periodontal assessments. As the instructor you are concerned that she has not asked about an antibiotic prophylaxis for the joint replacement. How will you approach this with her and what grade and feedback should she get from you?

I would start by asking if she thought she might have missed something? If she could not figure it out I would let her know that before we can do anything invasive, the patient needs his pre-medication. If she just forgot to tell me but she asked the patient and they confirmed they took it an hour before coming in, then I would award the student a meets expectations. If she did not remember the pre-medication, then I would handle that situation and then the student would get a below expectation from me. Forgetting to ask patients and check if they took their pre-medication can put them in harm and their health at risk. As hard as it may be to give the student a possible below expectation, it’s important to discuss my expectations of the student in situations like this. Communicating is key to help the student learn what they did wrong and fix it so they don’t repeat it. Like stated in the Handbook of Clinical Teaching, “it’s important to address both how the student is feeling and how he interprets the exchange.” It’s not just about me telling them what I think but how I can deliver the message to them that sinks in the most and understanding them as well.

#2 Today has not gone well for you. You forgot your phone on your kitchen table, you only slept 4 hours last night and when you got into clinic you realized that you put your scrub top on inside out……..and it is not a reversible scrub top. The clinic is full and you are the only instructor and two students have added on to the clinic. You know it’s going to be one of those crazy days. But you love working with students so you are up for the challenge. Clinic rolls along quite well because you have excellent organizational and time management skills. Your student, Ben, asks you to check his scaling which he has completed. Using good questioning skills you ask him, “How did the scaling go?” He says he thinks it went really well, he only had a little trouble with some crowding in the lower anteriors but he feels confident that everything is good. As you begin to check you come across…one…….two…..three………………………..seven pieces of readily detectable calculus. How will you handle this situation? What grade will you give Ben?

If I could feel seven spots of readily detectible calculus when Ben thought he had gotten it all I would have him sit down and feel each spot with me supervising him. I want to make sure he actually explored, knows how to use the instrument, and knows how to detect calculus. I would give Ben a below expectations for technical ability in clinic that day. I would discuss with him after his patient is gone what happened. I would want to know if there was a need for remediation or if he was just rushing to get done. Helping the student and myself figure out what happened will help us both to fix the problem and learn from it. It will never be easy to give a student a bad grade but using some tips from the Handbook of Clinical Teaching is a major help. When discussing expectations of yours to a student, “start with something positive and then discuss the concern, honestly and clearly, and finish on a positive note by summarizing the agreed-on actions.” This is actions I will be taking into use daily as a clinical instructor.

Blog Post 7: 
1. Should students know they are being evaluated? Why or why not?
I’m torn somewhat on this question. First, I always hated doing competencies because I would get so nervous that I would not perform as well as I normally would. I once told an instructor I needed to complete an instrument competency and she told me that she would not tell me when she would evaluate me but would be watching during that clinic time. I did great on the competency and felt at ease and not at all stressed. On the other hand, there are times in clinic when students rush and, for example, may not keep the tip of the explorer on the tooth even though they normally do. If instructors don’t tell the student they are doing the competency then they would get points off for somthing they normally perform correctly. So if I had to decided if students should know when they are being evaluated, I would answer yes. I believe that what my aforementioned instructor did would be the best method. Students should know the clinic period that they will be evaluated on but not neccesarily the exact time. I believe this will relieve their test anxiety and allow them to perform to their best without the pressure.

2. Should students have to pass competencies more than once? Why or why not?
I believe students should for sure have to pass their competencies more than once. I believe this because it’s good to test the students’ skills overtime to ensure they don’t lose that ability or knowledge; also to make sure the first time wasn’t just luck that they passed. After all, if they passed it once then they should have no problem passing it again. The last reason to support my answer of having them testing more than once is that sometimes a student fails to use all their instruments. Students often have their favorite instruments and stick to those and forget to use the others. I can say I was guilty of this and being tested more than once over the instruments made me practice all of them, and not just the ones I liked.

3. What strategies could instructors use to help students who are incredibly nervous during a competency exam?
As I talked about above, a great way for an instructor to reduce test anxiety is to not inform the student that a competency will be done during the clinic period but not to give away the exact time. This helped me as a student while being graded and I was so much less stressed when the teacher came to watch me. I didn’t feel the same stress as when they would say “ok do this competency, go”. Besides this technique, I can’t really think of anything else to help a nervous student. The fact is that competencies are stressful but instructors can do some things to reduce a bit of that stress.

Blog Post 6: I want you to answer the following questions. Should clinical faculty only reinforce what is taught in classes or textbooks? Do these modifications have a place in clinical teaching? How could a clinical faculty member introduce different techniques without negating what students were taught in the classroom or pre-clinic? 

I feel the clinical faculty should not only teach what is correct by textbook standards, but also things that may not be. When I was a junior in my Dental Hygiene program I heard the seniors used the 204S for scaling interproximals of lower anterior teeth. As juniors we didn’t understand why they did this since we were taught that the 204S is only a posterior sickle scaler. We asked our instructors about this and they told us that they too use the instrument in ways that are technically incorrect. They explained that you can use it for other uses than just what is in the books but that they wanted us to learn the correct way of instrumenting it and master it before we would experiment with other areas. I remember messing around with other uses for the 204S, and now, as a senior, I love using it and found it more useful in areas I originally didn’t learn it for. I believe these modifications absolutely have a place in clinical teaching. If one can use an instrument to remove calculus in a safe and appropriate manner then why only be limited to the uses described in the book? A big part of being a hygienist is coming up with efficient ways of doing our job and being flexible. As stated in the preceptor handbook, “Adjust your plan as opportunities arise and as you observe the student’s performance and identify new learning needs. Flexibility is an important key to precepting success.” I agree 100% with this statement. In reference to the instrument above being used in areas not identified in the textbook, we were taught to use it for tight contacts on the lower anteriors. This is a good example of adjusting one’s plan as opportunities arise. Sometimes one must be creative to solve a solution to tight contacts and using the 204S in the manner I did in clinic is an example.

A faculty can introduce modifications in clinic similar to how I was introduced. At first we were taught the “correct” way of instrumenting with the 204S. Then after we passed our competencies and showed that we mastered the instrumentation of it, we were then taught how it could be used in other ways. The teachers explained to us why it can be used on the modified areas, demonstrated, and watched as we learned the same skill. I believe this is the best way to instruct students of something not in the textbook. It’s vital that students first learn the “correct” way and master that. Then after this is completed the students can learn the more complex skills not taught in books. It’s important for the instructors to coach students closely and role model when teaching them anything new, especially a technique not taught in the book or class. In the preceptor handbook they discuss cognitive coaching when the one acts as the coach and the other person is the partner who recieves the coaching. The reason for doing this, I believe, also applies to what my faculty did for us in clinic when learning other uses for the 204S. How this works is, “They discuss how well the planned approaches worked and what additional approaches might be tried in the future. They may agree to continue goal setting, planning, and observing with feedback.” This technique was similar to what my instructors did for us and it’s an effective way of clinical coaching and role modeling.

While checking in the intra/extra oral exam you notice a lesion on the buccal mucosa. The student has not mentioned it to you and you have not looked at the intra/extra oral exam page yet. What question do you ask and why do you ask that question? What follow up questions might you ask? Remember to follow the principles introduced in the readings and discuss how your questions follow those principles.

I would ask the student first, “Did you notice anything on the intra/extra oral exam of concern, note worthy, or interesting?” I would ask this question because it leaves room for an open discussion of what the student did or did not find. There is no wrong answer to this question but allows the student to explain, elaborate, discribe, or ask questions about anything they found. It also allows the student to communicate their thought process while giving the oral exam and to verbalize it. Even if nothing out of the normal is found on the exam, I would ask the student to elaborate why they believe that. This allows them to explain their reasoning for their answer and use their critical thinking skills.

Some follow up questions could be, “discribe the diamter/size of a lesion found, is it elevated or not, color, boarders, location?” Another good follow up question would be, “How or why did you determine that the lesion is note worthy or out of the range of normal anatomy?”

When asking questions of students in clinic it’s important to be aware of the knowldge level of the students. For example, I would expect senior students who have had oral pathology to describe lesions using the correct terminology. And for juniors, I would not expect them to use proper pathology terms like, vesicle and macule. I believe the questions I mentioned earlier were both factual and thought provoking like that stated in the article about developing questioning skills. From what I learned in the article, I tried to avoid “yes” or “no” questions, and if that was unavoidable then I followed up the question that made the student elaborate on their reasoning. Other questions I avoided were ones that lead the student to the answer I wanted them to give me. The questions I asked were aimed to evaluate the level of knowledge the student has by incorporating all the different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy; like knowldge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation in order to answer all my questions. It’s important to ask questions that require higher levels of cognitive skills, especially for students who are seniors or are more advanced, in order to facilitate learning.

Blog Post 4: If you haven’t graduated yet, what do you think you will use the most once you are out of school? So what do you think about the quote? Is it true? Is it important to teach facts? Is it important to teach critical thinking and problem solving and why? Do we need both? Which is most important?

Once I am out of school I feel I will mostly use the oral hygiene education information and ways of educating my patients the most. The other thing I believe I will use most are my technical skills since I will be taking radiographs, scaling, and polishing at every appointment. Also, if I am a clinical teacher I will use the skills I have learned and share them with my students. I love the quote by Albert Einstein, “Education is what remains after one has forgotten what one has learned in school.” This is 100% the true meaning of knowledge and education. It’s impossible to remember all the information I learned while in hygiene school, even though I wish I could. What sticks with me, I can recall, apply, and use daily in my hygiene life is the education I got from Ohio State. It’s vital to teach facts to my patients and students once I graduate and nothing but the facts. Their oral hygiene education depends on hygienist like me. A big part of being a hygienist is to use evidence-based decision making skills and keep up on current issues, topics, and technology. Critical thinking and problem solving go hand-in-hand with the evidence-based decision making role of a hygienist, both in the office and while teaching in a clinic. Dental hygienists will use critical thinking skills daily with all their patients and students. Not every patient is healthy and has perfect teeth. Most patients need some detective work by the hygienist to figure out the connections between systemic, risk factors, and oral hygiene. Problem solving skills are very important when treating a patient, and that goes along with critical thinking; a hygienist needs both. Both are also equally important; neither one nor the other is more critical in my opinion than the other. In the article we had to read for class it stated that two important strategies to facilitate development in students. These two strategies are role modeling and questioning techniques. Teaching and modeling students to ask questions to themselves and reflect on what they learn will help them understand and educate them effectively. As a current student, I too have to write reflections on my clinical experience in clinic and also at my practicum site. Because of assignments like this I have facilitated the knowledge I’ve learned and it has taught me how to think critically.