Community as the teacher on issues of social responsibility, substance use, and queer health in dental education

Abstract

Introduction In order to foster dental and dental hygiene practices that are inclusive, sensitive to diversity, equitable, and without prejudice, a call to broadly teach cultural diversity within dental and dental hygiene education has been made. The research question of this study was "to what extent can an interactive and open dialogue about substance use, queer health, and social responsibility foster transformative learning?" Methods A collaborative and interdisciplinary project engaged the community as a teacher over the Summer and Fall of 2019 to address issues of substance use, queer health, and social responsibility and was delivered to 55 first-year undergraduate dental and 23 third-year dental hygiene students over three educational sessions. Dental and dental hygiene students were asked to reflect, in writing, on each session using between 200 and 400 words. Textual information from students' self-reflections and from the community's feedback were analyzed thematically for content (e.g., codes and themes). Results In total, 128 written reflections-for an average of 42 reflections per session-were gathered and analyzed interactively by the authors. Three major themes emerged: feeling privileged, breaking stereotypes, and coalescing learning. Feedback from the participating community members highlighted changes to be implemented in these sessions in the future, including more opportunities for small group activities in class.

Mental health and wellness in Canadian dental schools: Findings from a national study

“…Evidence suggests that workshops may be beneficial to build students' resilience and support their wellbeing, as they can prompt students to become more selfaware of their mental health. 34,35 The effectiveness and value of self-reflection activities about resilience have been found to be inconsistent, 35 although it has been proved to be a valid tool to discuss issues of social responsibility and substance use, 36 in addition to the impact of COVID-19 upon students' education. 37 The overall findings of the dental schools' survey are positive given they all offered some form of mental health and wellness activities, as found in other studies.…”

População LGBTQIA+

“…Os 19 artigos selecionados consistiam em estudos sobre as experiências e acesso à saúde bucal por pacientes LGBTQIA+ 2,16-20 e estudos transversais sobre a experiência dos alunos de graduação e pós-graduação em Odontologia com a população LGBTQIA+ 13,[21][22][23][24][25][26] . Quatro artigos demonstraram a experiência de se inserir atividades focadas na desmistificação da população LGBTQIA+ durante a graduação em Odontologia [27][28][29][30] . Artigos que investigaram a presença de alunos LGBTQIA+ em cursos da área da saúde e o suporte a eles fornecido pelas instituições de ensino também foram considerados 8,9,23,25 .…”

“…Outra dinâmica interessante, também utilizada com alunos de graduação, envolveu o papel das minorias das próprias comunidades como "professores" perante os alunos. Através do contato e diálogo com representantes LGBTQIA+ os alunos puderam refletir e discorrer sobre as principais demandas dessa população e como colaborar com a saúde destas pessoas 28 . Estas abordagens estão citadas em uma revisão sistemática juntamente com o uso de vídeos com depoimentos de pacientes LGBTQIA+ e palestras sobre o tema 30 .…”

Data set and methodology involving pedagogical approaches to teach mental health and substance use in dental education

“…And that is what we hope to accomplish with this Data note. Between 2015/16 and 2018/19 [ 10 ], we have asked undergraduate dental students at the UBC to reflect on issues of stigma and discrimination towards substance use and mental health disorders as a socially responsible provider [ 11 – 13 ]. These anonymous reflections were prompted by an educational vignette posed during a 2.5 h didactic session [ 3 ]—please see a suggested methodological approach to generate reflection data [ 14 ].…”