Integrating Oral Health: Physician Assistant Education in 2017

Abstract

Purpose This study describes the inclusion of oral health in physician assistant (PA) education programs in 2017. A 2014 study found that 78% of responding programs (n = 98 of 125) had integrated this content into their curriculum. The current study represents a partnership between the National Interprofessional Initiative on Oral Health, the Center for Integration of Primary Care and Oral Health, and the PA Leadership Initiative in Oral Health. The PA profession was one of 14 health professions surveyed to assess the quantity and quality of oral health integration, including barriers to and facilitators of change. Methods An electronic cover letter explaining the research purpose was emailed to all US PA education program directors along with a link to a web-based survey. Most questions were followed by predefined response options; some questions offered an opportunity to include narrative responses or comments. Results There was greater inclusion of oral health curriculum in 2017 than in 2014, for both the number of programs including oral health education and the breadth of their curriculum. Conclusions Efforts to equip PA faculty to integrate oral health core clinical competencies into their curriculum should continue, because existing strategies appear to be sustainable and effective in expanding oral health content across PA programs.

Integrating Oral Health into Health Professions School Curricula

“…Medical schools that incorporate oral health education struggle to achieve competency[ 13 ]. While Physician Assistant and Nurse Practitioner Schools have more hours of oral health education, their Deans are still not satisfied with their graduates’ oral health knowledge and skills competency [ 14 , 15 ]. Data are limited, but this gap is understood among health educators to be international in scope[ 16 ].…”

Time to integrate oral health screening into medicine? A survey of primary care providers of older adults and an evidence‐based rationale for integration

“…28 Other NPs and PA programs have reported adequate oral health education (especially for paediatric oral health) provided to their graduates, but less so for adult geriatric oral health issues. 30,31 Third, medical/dental integration was perceived by all providers as being marginal in their respective practices. While advances to integrate oral health into medicine have taken place in paediatrics, 25,32,33 such oral health integration for older adults in the medical setting…”

Does Education in Oral Health Competencies in Physician Assistant Education Programs Translate to Delivery of Oral Health Services in Clinical Practice?

“…In 2014, a survey of the directors of the 166 accredited PA education programs in that year 6 found that more than 70% of respondent programs had integrated oral health topics into core content of their PA curricula, a notable increase from earlier findings. A 2017 Web-based survey of 244 US PA education programs 9 found that 96% of the 98 responding programs included oral health instruction as part of their curricula.…”