Faculty Efforts Enhance Academics
Dr. Owens Initiates OSCEs
In May LSUSD introduced the OSCE to third-year dental students. Coordinated by Dr. Jessica Owens, assistant professor of periodontics, this multidisciplinary OSCE, or Objective Structured Clinical Examination, was implemented to evaluate higher level clinical analysis by all third-year students. This first OSCE attempt was a trial run to obtain student and faculty feedback to improve future exams.
OSCEs have been widely used in the health sciences since the 1970’s. In February the ADA moved to create a national OSCE exam to assess a licensure candidate's entry-level clinical knowledge, skills, and competency.
Chaired by Dr. Owens and with representatives from every department, the OSCE Task Force designed the exam and determined how to administer it. The 63-student class was split into two groups with each half taking the exam in a two-hour period.
The exam was comprised of 32 stations: 3-4 stations per department. Each department was responsible for creating and grading their own questions. Designed in a three-minute time block to ascertain information students should know by the end of the third year, the questions ranged from clinical scenarios to interpretation of clinical data to one-on-one oral examinations. With help from faculty and staff, students rotated through the stations and filled out answer sheets.
Student feedback was compiled and presented to the LSUSD Curriculum Committee at its annual retreat. The task force will determine changes to the OSCE format for subsequent exams. Additionally Dr. Owens has designed an OSCE for the periodontics advanced education program, which will be implemented this fall.
A Collaborative Traumatology Selective
An LSUSD selective course with the goal of expanding dental student experience in managing dental trauma is the result of collaboration by faculty members in pediatric dentistry, endodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, and orthodontics. Directed by Dr. Janice Townsend, associate professor and head of pediatric dentistry, and Kent Sabey, associate professor and director of advanced education in endodontics, the selective is offered in the senior year of dental school and combines case-based discussions of management of traumatic dental injuries with shadowing of hospital trauma cases.
|
Trauma course directors Janice
Townsend, DDS, MS, and Kent Sabey, DDS
|
Because the traditional dental curriculum offers few opportunities for students to evaluate and treat patients with acute dental trauma, this unique selective includes an after-hours on-call component for students to shadow residents in pediatric dentistry and oral and maxillofacial surgery at Children’s Hospital and University Medical Center. After exposure to hospital-based treatment of patients with traumatic injuries, students expressed greater confidence in their diagnosis and management abilities. A recent article published in Dental Traumatology,
April 2017, describes and analyzes the selective. “Interdisciplinary Approach to Education: Preparing General Dentists to Manage Dental Trauma,” was authored by Drs. Janice Townsend, Brett King, Richard Ballard, Paul Armbruster, and Kent Sabey.
Dr. Hubar Publishes Radiology Textbook
Kudos to Dr. Sean Hubar, professor of oral and maxillofacial radiology, for his recently published textbook, Fundamentals of Oral and Maxillofacial Radiology. Published by Wiley, the 264-page book is available in print and electronic versions from the publisher and from Amazon. Dr. Hubar said, “My goal was to produce a handbook that was practical and useful for all levels of dental background—especially for auxiliaries in private practice.”
The book covers intraoral and panoramic principles, technique errors, answers to patient questions about hazards of radiation, x-ray protection, current government regulations, basic intraoral and extraoral radiographic anatomy, summaries of common radiographic pathology, an introduction to CBCT, and an extensive glossary of radiographic terminology.
|
