Clinical partnerships for interprofessional education of family nurse practitioner and dental hygiene students

Oral diseases negatively affect the health of American children and adults, especially those living in poverty. Dental caries continues to be the most common disease of children while adults with suboptimal control of their chronic medical conditions experience disproportionate poor oral health. While non-dental related Emergency Department (ED) visits are declining, those prompted by oral pain are rising.  Low-income and underserved populations have the highest ED utilization rates for oral concerns.  Enhancing the role of non-dental health care professionals through the Integration of Oral Health and Primary Care Practice may help reduce the burden of oral disease in the United States and potentially diminish ED utilization for oral concerns.  This presentation describes a program in which dental hygiene and nurse practitioner students work collaboratively to deliver cutting-edge oral disease prevention interventions to two high-risk populations in two unique settings - adults in a psychiatric rehabilitation primary care center and low-income children in rural elementary schools.  The development and implementation of this model will be discussed and the value of IPE, its relevance to the oral-systemic link, the importance of bringing more collaborative practice to health care delivery, and the need to reduce ED utilization among the underserved will be highlighted.  The project’s goal of providing oral disease prevention services collaboratively to underserved populations embraces state-of-the art health professions learning competencies and responds to current legislation, economic drivers and the public’s complex oral health care needs.  Collaborative practice may offer timely access to appropriate medical and dental prevention and screening services.