Assessment of Full-Time Dental Hygiene Faculty Participation in Clinical Practice

Abstract

The purpose of this research project was to determine how many U.S. dental hygiene (DH) programs had full-time (FT) faculty members who provided direct patient care in addition to clinical supervision duties. Questions in this project also assessed attitudes and opinions of directors regarding faculty clinical practice and opportunities for salary supplementation. A questionnaire of 20 open and close ended questions was designed on Survey Monkey, an online survey engine. After IRB approval and pilot testing, 278 U.S. DH program directors received two emails requesting their participation in the project, along with a direct link to the questionnaire. A response rate of 69.1% was achieved with 192 program directors responding. Results revealed that 14.2% of the programs required FT DH faculty members to provide direct patient care while 67.0% of the programs had faculties who participated. The primary clinical setting was a private dental practice (90.3%). 83.3 % of the programs indicated FT faculty members were compensated for providing direct patient care, and in 95.1% of these programs FT faculties received compensation in addition to their university base salary. 95.4% of directors indicated maintaining clinical skills is an advantage of faculty participation in direct patient care, and 48% of directors indicated participation in direct patient care takes time away from the primary role of an educator. Bivariate analyses were performed in order to acquire correlations using the Chi-square test when both variables being compared were nominal. The Mantel-Haenszel row mean score test was used when a nominal and ordinal variable were being compared. Statistically significant data revealed that respondents from a college / university with a dental school (28%) were more likely to require FT faculties to participate in direct patient care (p-value=0.016). Compared to two-year college respondents (69.3%), respondents from a college / university with a dental school (95.5%) were more likely to agree that faculties should be given the opportunity to provide direct patient care while teaching in DH education (p-value=0.0069). In conclusion, DH faculties are fulfilling their professional development requirement as mandated by the Accreditation Standards for DH Education Programs by participating in direct patient care.