Abstract
Commission on Dental Accreditation Standards require that dental hygiene students are competent in evaluation of scientific literature. A current problem is the lack of faculty mentorship to develop allied oral health student researchers. The goal the University of Minnesota (UMN) undergraduate research program was to utilize an existing writing curriculum thread and mentor students interested in research through the development of research question(s), study design, conducting research, and the manuscript development process to achieve a publication.
The UMN dental hygiene program assessed the writing within the program, created standardized rubrics for research and reflective writing, and calibrated dental hygiene faculty on their use. Additionally, a writing orientation workshop was established to increase student success in writing. Students were also encouraged to apply for a dental hygiene writing award as this was used to select students for the research mentorship program. Writing outcomes were assessed and improvement was demonstrated in several key writing standards defined by the program. A total of nine (n=9) students have participated in the faculty research mentorship program from 2019 to 2023 and eight students completed the program assessment questionnaire (n=8, 87.5%). All participants reported strong agreement that they felt supported in all aspects of the research process and expressed confidence that they could complete research in the future. Six students had publications and one student was under review. The development of a writing enriched curriculum and a writing orientation workshop has improved student writing outcomes and student engagement in research and publication at UMN. Faculty mentorship resulted in students’ experience with manuscript development and the peer-review process to obtain a publication. More faculty mentorship in undergraduate allied oral health education is needed to engage students in the research process.
INTRODUCTION
Student mentorship is an essential component of professional development for future career satisfaction.1 Mentorship provides knowledge transfer, career planning, networking, and development of professional identity.2-6 In dental hygiene education there is a need to develop students’ skills extending beyond clinical practice such as professional writing and scholarly activities including a feasible research project. Research mentorship in dental hygiene education can allow for students to work with dental hygiene faculty with research expertise as their mentors.7,8 As part of this process, students work collaboratively with dental hygiene faculty in a mentor-mentee relationship that included all aspects of the research project from planning, design, implementation, data collection and analysis, manuscript writing, and submission for publication. Currently many dental hygiene programs teach research concepts in a theoretical manner in didactic courses with little to no hands on opportunities to investigate research gaps and disseminate outcomes.9 There is also a need to prepare students for future career pathways in academics and research, which supports the integration of a research mentorship program in dental hygiene curricula.9
Mentors can offer emotional support and encouragement throughout the research process.4,7,8 Through constructive feedback from their mentor, mentees gain confidence in their abilities and decisions.4,7,8 This boost in confidence empowers mentees to take on new challenges, pursue ambitious goals, and the ability to advocate for themselves in their professional lives.10-12 In addition, mentees can acquire not only subject-specific knowledge related to their research question, but also professional skills related to project management, critical thinking, problem-solving, and effective communication.4,6
While there are numerous benefits for mentees during this process, mentors can also derive benefits from these relationships. Mentoring provides an opportunity for mentors to hone their leadership and coaching skills.2,3,13 Mentors have the opportunity to strengthen their ability to communicate effectively, provide constructive feedback, and motivate others.2,3,13 Mentors may gain new perspectives, insights, and knowledge through interactions with their mentees and exposure to novel ideas and experiences.2,3,13 Working with a mentee allows mentors to leave a lasting impact on their profession or field by nurturing the next generation of professionals.2,3,13 Mentoring can also challenge mentors to reflect on their own practices, beliefs, and values, leading to increased self-awareness and personal growth.13,14
The Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) states that dental hygiene programs must demonstrate effectiveness using a formal and ongoing planning and assessment process that is systematically documented by developing a plan addressing teaching, patient care, research, and service (Standard 1.1a).15 Each program is expected to define its own goals for comprehensively preparing competent graduates. Standard 2.22 states that graduates must be competent in the evaluation of current scientific literature.15 The intent of this standard is to ensure that dental hygienists can evaluate scientific literature to enable lifelong learning and evidenced-based practice.15 Additionally, there needs to be an assessment method for the effectiveness of research experiences.15 These skills are necessary for dental hygiene graduates to be able to adapt to ongoing changes in health care.15 Developing avenues to enable students to further develop critical thinking skills is essential.
UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA RESEARCH MENTORSHIP PROGRAM
Creating pathways for undergraduate allied oral health students to engage with research would benefit from faculty mentorship. The goals of this undergraduate research program at the University of Minnesota were to 1) mentor students interested in research, 2) mentor students through the development of research question(s) and study design, 3) conduct a research study, 4) mentor manuscript development/writing and the peer-review process to achieve a publication.
Writing Enriched Curriculum
The University of Minnesota (UMN) Dental Hygiene program established a partnership with the UMN Writing Across the Curriculum to assess the current writing experiences in the dental hygiene program and develop writing experiences as thread throughout a six-semester program to enhance critical thinking and communication skills of future dental hygiene professionals. This educational intervention provided the foundation of the research mentorship program. During the initial phase, new rubrics were developed for research and reflective writing as part of the writing enriched curriculum (WEC) plan. The research rubric criteria included a focused research question, research selection, synthesis of research, organization, and citation and writing standards. The reflection rubric criteria included the description of events and background, key findings and assessment of events, connections and extensions, moving forward, tone, professionalism, and writing standards. These rubrics were consistent with all dental hygiene courses that included writing assignments. Faculty were calibrated on these rubrics annually to ensure fair grading and consistent feedback regardless of course, assignment, or faculty.
Part of the WEC plan was acknowledging dental hygiene students have a diverse range of writing experiences that may be attributed from various enrollments in higher education institutions, prerequisite courses, exposure to different and non-dental hygiene specific citation styles, and English proficiency. To prepare all incoming students for professional writing and equitable learning, a 1-day writing orientation workshop was held at the beginning of second semester to provide basic writing knowledge, skills, and expectations to be successful in a writing intensive curriculum (Figure 1).
Writing Orientation Workshop
The workshop included a combination of lectures, active learning, and group discussions. The UMN dental hygiene program’s goals and standards of writing were introduced to the students. These standards provide the framework for the types of writing assignments embedded throughout the dental hygiene curriculum. Lecture topics included a review of the research and reflective rubrics, credibility of sources, and the National Library of Medicine (NLM) citation format. Active learning activities included students reading samples of writing and applying the reflection or research rubric to determine the rubric criteria that was met successfully or lacked in other criteria followed by group discussion on how to correct the deficiency. In small groups, students were asked to rate several selected articles in order of credibility using the evidence-based pyramid and provide a rationale for their decision. This allows students to understand the different types of evidence and rank them using a widely used standard for evidence. A significant portion of the workshop allowed for students to work in small groups practicing NLM citation style for five preselected sources to provide students with different levels of difficulty. Lastly, plagiarism and the use of artificial intelligence (AI) software was addressed. Students reviewed the University’s Academic Integrity policy related to plagiarism and AI and sample scenarios were also discussed.
Dental Hygiene Writing Award
All dental hygiene students experience the WEC and will write a narrative literature review as a course requirement in the clinical applications course. To encourage writing and highlight the successes of student writing, The Dental Hygiene Writing Award was created in 2018. All students have the opportunity to submit their narrative literature review for this award in semester four. To promote interest in the award, students are introduced to a page in the learning management system dedicated to the previous writing award winners with their name, photo, graduation year, publication title, and a publication link for students to access the articles.
Research Mentee Selection
The Dental Hygiene Writing Award is used to select students for the research mentorship program. Students’ submissions are deidentified and all dental hygiene faculty (with the exception of the course director) evaluate the narrative literature reviews using the WEC research rubric; scores are submitted to the faculty scholarship committee chair for tabulation and final selection. The top award recipient receives a monetary award and faculty support to submit their writing for the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) Sigma Phi Alpha Journalism award. Students are informed about the research mentorship program prior to applying for the writing award and of the possibility that the scholarly work may extend past graduation. Evidence indicates longer mentorship relationships enhance career satisfaction.16,17 Each year between one and four students are selected depending on the availability of faculty mentors.
Program Mentors
The two faculty members who developed the writing orientation workshop are the lead mentors for students, due to their experience in research, allocated research time, writing, development of the WEC, and their publications in peer-reviewed journals. Additional faculty mentors are selected based on their interest in writing and research. Early career faculty members may express interest in being part of the mentorship team or are invited based on their expertise in a research topic. These faculty mentors meet with the WEC faculty developers regarding the mentorship process and expectations, and the roles and responsibilities of the mentor and mentee. All participants are included on all communications regarding the project to model the professionalism, collaborative communication, planning, and role delineation in the mentorship program. Mentees also gain insight to the professional dialogue and planning that often occurs among faculty and researchers. The dental hygiene research mentorship process is illustrated in Figure 2.
Research Mentorship Program
Program Assessment and Recommendations
Participant outcomes from the dental hygiene research mentorship program have been collected since 2019. The rationale for collecting metric data from the previous participants (n=8, 87.5%) was to explore their experiences in addition to ensuring that the research mentorship program goals and objectives were met. A 10-item questionnaire was developed to gain understanding of the support and confidence the participants experienced particularly to research tasks. Results from the student participant questionnaire are shown in Table I.
Student perceived support and confidence (n=8)
In addition, faculty mentors completed an informal debrief session at the conclusion of each student’s research project to discuss the challenges and successes of collaboration. The debrief sessions focused on areas that could be improved logistically to meet the programs objectives while supporting the students’ research interests. One example of a system improvement identified during a mentor debriefing was in the planning of the type of research project based on the mentee’s ability or interest to continue with their research post-graduation. Mentee’s who were willing to commit to finalizing their research post-graduation may have the option for original research study (i.e. survey research); whereas research mentees were not able to extend their mentorship beyond graduation could have the option of a narrative review of the literature.
The WEC and research mentee program resulted in improvements of writing outcomes, positive student experiences, and general feasibility in the curriculum as identified by faculty research mentors. These successes support the incorporation of a WEC and research mentorship program in dental hygiene education programs outside of the UMN.
Faculty research mentoring promotes lifelong learning for both the mentor and mentee while providing dental hygiene students necessary skills for their careers as oral health care professionals. Programs offering bachelor’s degrees, especially those in dental schools or research-focused institutions, may be better prepared to implement a research mentee program with the aim of helping students develop publishable manuscripts. However, associate degree programs can also incorporate writing and research through strategic course planning, faculty training, and calibration. Programs with time constraints (less than six semesters) can implement a scaled-down version. Feasibility depends on faculty interest and experience, with options ranging from submitting short reports or case studies to journals, to developing presentations or posters for dental hygiene conferences. Faculty mentorship of junior faculty members is also recommended. Dental hygiene faculty with limited research or mentorship experience can network with the ADHA by serving on committees or participate in the American Dental Education Association sections or special interest groups to seek mentorship with the long-term goal to be strong faculty mentors for their students.
CONCLUSION
The UMN writing enriched curriculum and research mentorship program has demonstrated success in improving student writing skills and student research publication outcomes. Dental hygiene programs should consider implementing curricular interventions to enhance student writing and to identify students interested in further research opportunities. Programs should consider assessing current writing activities to evaluate goals, expectations, and assignments, and develop consistent rubrics for fair grading and feedback. Faculty calibration, through scoring student samples together, will help address discrepancies in grading. Additionally, a writing orientation workshop can be introduced early in the curriculum to equip students with essential writing skills for increased success throughout the program.
IMPLICATIONS FOR DENTAL HYGIENE PRACTICE
Embedding writing and research mentorship programs into dental hygiene education settings equips dental hygiene students with necessary skills for their careers as oral health care professionals.
Mentoring future oral health care professionals promotes life-long learning for both the mentor and the mentee, enabling them to apply the principles of evidence-based practice across all settings.
Mentorship programs allow for dental hygiene students to explore a wide range of career opportunities and areas of specialization in the profession.
Footnotes
NDHRA priority area, Professional development: Education (educational model).
DISCLOSURE
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, grant UL1TR002494. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.
- Received August 16, 2024.
- Accepted January 15, 2025.
- Copyright © 2025 The American Dental Hygienists’ Association
