Primary Care and Oral Health Integration: Comparing Training Across Disciplines.

Background: Primary care (PC) training programs must incorporate oral health (OH) into their curricula to reduce health disparities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare OH education integration across multiple PC disciplines.

Methods: In 2017, the authors surveyed deans and program directors (PDs) across 13 disciplines (2,245 PC programs) and used the Input Process Output framework to evaluate training factors across these disciplines.

Integrating Oral Health: Physician Assistant Education in 2017.

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.

Adoption of oral health curriculum by physician assistant education programs in 2014.

Purpose: The purpose of the study was to describe inclusion of didactic and clinical instruction in oral health in physician assistant (PA) education programs in 2014. A previous study in 2008 found that PA education program directors generally understood the importance of teaching about the linkage of oral health with systemic health; yet, few programs had actually integrated oral health instruction into the PA curriculum. This study was undertaken to ascertain the number of PA programs teaching oral health topics and to evaluate the content of instruction and implementation strategies.

Innovations in faculty development: interprofessional oral health workshops combine active learning and community engagement.

Purpose: This paper reports the findings of a retrospective study of PA faculty who attended an innovative oral health faculty development workshop at the PAEA Annual Education Forum in 2011 or 2012. The oral health workshop combined didactic and interactive learning, including a hands-on community service practicum.

Methods: The impact of this interprofessional oral health workshop was evaluated by measuring the degree to which participants incorporated workshop concepts into educational curriculum.

Advancing oral health in physician assistant education: evaluation of an innovative interprofessional oral health curriculum.

Purpose: The impact of an oral health curriculum was evaluated by measuring increases in knowledge about oral health topics and implementation of oral health skills in the clinical year.

Methods: A 3-year, longitudinal oral health curriculum was developed and implemented. Student knowledge of oral health concepts was evaluated before and 2 years after the curriculum was implemented.

Physician assistants: from pipeline to practice.

For over four decades, physician assistants (PAs) have demonstrated that they are effective partners in a changing health care environment, readily adaptable to the needs of an evolving delivery system. With increased expectations of physician shortages, especially in primary care, PAs will be called on to fill provider gaps and new roles in interprofessional team-based delivery systems. There are over 90,000 certified PAs in the workforce and 173 accredited programs yielding an estimated 6,545 graduates annually, with an estimated 65 new programs seeking provisional accreditation by the end of 2016.

Training gaps for pediatric residents planning a career in primary care: a qualitative and quantitative study.

Background: Resident training in pediatrics currently entails similar training for all residents in a fragmented curriculum with relatively little attention to the career plans of individual residents.

Objectives: To explore strengths and gaps in training for residents planning a career in primary care pediatrics and to present strategies for addressing the gaps.

Methods: Surveys were sent to all graduates of the University of Colorado Denver Pediatric Residency Program (2003-2006) 3 years after completion of training.

Excellence in physician assistant training through faculty development.

Once again, experts predict a shortage of health care providers by 2020. The physician assistant (PA) profession was created in the 1960s to address a similar need. Currently, there are 141 accredited PA training programs in the United States, 75 of them established in the 10 years between 1993 and 2002.

Addressing the hidden curriculum: understanding educator professionalism.

Several authors agree that student observations of behaviors are a far greater influence than prescriptions for behavior offered in the classroom. While these authors stress the importance of modeling of professional relationships with patients and colleagues, at times they have fallen short of acknowledging the importance of the values inherent in the role of the professional educator. This includes relationships and concomitant behaviors that stem from the responsibilities of being an educator based on expectations of institutional and societal culture.

Evaluation of electronic discussion groups as a teaching/learning strategy in an evidence-based medicine course: a pilot study.

Background: As course directors, we wished to incorporate small group learning into our Evidence-based Medicine course for students to get feedback on the development of a well constructed, researchable clinical question. Scheduling of these groups was problematic. We sought to evaluate computer-mediated communication as an alternative to face-to-face small groups.

PA education in an evolving health care system.

Remarkable changes in medicine and education have created opportunities to redefine physician assistant (PA) education in a new context. The result has been the evolution of a dynamic and fluid educational model, one that is responsive to changes in the content and delivery of the PA curriculum. Development of new skills related to practice management and mechanisms for health services delivery, particularly for the growing numbers of uninsured and disenfranchised patients, presents a particular challenge.

Best evidence-based practices: a historic perspective.

Neonatologists, neonatal nurses, and others who care for critically ill newborns hope that the care they provide will improve the health and the neurodevelopmental outcome of these neonates. In this progressive era of neonatal medicine, we must pause to look backward even as we look forward, taking full advantage of the opportunity to reflect on our short history and to review several important events in neonatal medicine that have contributed in a meaningful way to the evolution of evidence-based neonatal care. Six interventions highlight why randomized controlled trials are necessary to understand the risks and benefits of our interventions with premature and critically ill infants.

Adolescent health care experience of gay, lesbian, and bisexual young adults.

Methods: Subjects were 102 self-identified gay, lesbian, and bisexual youth aged 18-23 years. A confidential self-administered survey elicited demographic information, sexual orientation information, health care experiences, subjects' understanding of medical confidentiality during ages 14-18 years, and their suggestions for improving care to gay and lesbian adolescents.

Results: Two-thirds of subjects never discussed sexual orientation with their provider but reported a desire to do so.

Medical student abuse. Incidence, severity, and significance.

In a survey of the incidence, severity, and significance of medical student abuse as perceived by the student population of one major medical school, 46.4% of all respondents stated that they had been abused at some time while enrolled in medical school, with 80.6% of seniors reporting being abused by the senior year.

Continuities and discontinuities in affective and cognitive-motivational development.

This paper reviews research on the issue of continuities and discontinuities in development, focusing on affective and cognitive-motivational aspects. The theoretical view of Rene Spitz and supporting research is reviewed related to transformations in affective development. Methods of assessment of cognitive-motivational development ("mastery motivation") are described as utilized in a number of studies.

The application of hospice concepts to neonatal care.

Despite impressive improvements in outcome for infants cared for in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), large tertiary-care referral units still admit a substantial number of infants who will not survive or, because of a predictably very poor outcome, should not be offered modern life-support techniques. Dealing with these infants can be extremely taxing on both the family and the staff. We have recently adapted the concepts first described in adult hospice care to the care of the dying neonate and his family.