Curriculum Development Award

This resource is designed to serve as a complete inter]professional teaching]learning activity for students in a combined session for advanced nursing practice and physician assistant studies. Existing instructional materials and strategies used in teaching physician assistants will be refined by an interdisciplinary faculty team from health sciences, nursing, dentistry, physician assistant studies and medicine to include oral systemic curriculum innovation in nursing education. New Information will be integrated into our existing resource to supplement the Smiles for Life national cuniculum. Knowledge that focuses on the com1ection of oral health and systemic disease will be included with specific attention to the need for early recognition and referral as well as disease prevention. Instructional methods will include team]based learning among the graduate students in advanced nursing practice and physician assistant studies in the classroom, teaching lab and simulated clinical environment. The type of instructional resource for this submission is a blended format of lecture material, video with live demonstrations and on]line internet information accessing Smiles for Life modules. Hands on experience will be provided and reinforced by vittual clinical observations. An oral pathology review will become part of the new content to prepare students for conducting the oral exam with an eye toward oral cancer screening and referral. Students will be given individual penlights and gloves to encourage more thorough examinations.