require dental students to participate in community clinic rotations. The intention of those rotations is to increase student awareness of vulnerable patients' needs, demonstrate the personal rewards of serving patients in need, and expose students to careers in community dentistry. 6 Results have been generally positive with one study showing improved student attitudes toward community service, increased awareness of oral health disparities, and increased self-efficacy about caring for diverse patients. 7 The importance of measuring and enhancing student awareness and attitudes about oral health disparities is based on the Theory of Reasoned Action. 8 If a behavioral change is desired, two major factors must be present: a personal or "attitudinal" factor and a social or "normative" factor. Personal factors are a function of the person's attitude toward a specific behavior and are thought to relate to perceived consequences and subsequent outcomes.Abstract: Dental therapy was recently introduced as a new oral health care workforce model to increase care for vulnerable populations in Minnesota. Nine dental therapy and 98 dental students began intraprofessional training at the University of Minnesota in 2009. The aim of this longitudinal study was to determine whether intraprofessional education with the dental therapy students would affect the dental students' attitudes toward caring for underserved populations. One class of dental students was surveyed annually between 2009 and 2013 using the Attitudes Toward Health Care survey to measure attitudinal changes about treating vulnerable patients across their four years of dental school. Participation ranged from 68% to 99% in each year. The results showed that the dental students had positive attitudes toward treating vulnerable patients on entering dental school, but their attitudes became less positive over the four years. While the composite survey results were similar to other studies using the same instrument, variations were seen by domain. These students' attitudes about societal expectations and personal efficacy remained stable, while their dentist/student responsibility and access to care attitudes showed statistically significant declines. Their positive attitudes toward treating the underserved declined over four years regardless of intraprofessional training with dental therapy students. As attitudes toward caring for vulnerable patients are shaped by both personal attitudes and societal norms, additional research is needed to determine whether the addition of an intentional curricular thread may alter results over time compared to intraprofessional training alone.
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