The Interprofessional Oral Health Faculty Tool Kits are based on the IPEC Competencies, the AACN Essentials, the NONPF Core Competencies and the HRSA interprofessional oral health core competencies delineated in the Integration of Oral Health and Primary Care Practice report (2014). Developed by OHNEP, the Interprofessional Oral Health Faculty Tool Kits are innovative, web-based, open source products intended to facilitate the integration of oral-systemic health content and clinical competencies into undergraduate nursing, nurse practitioner and midwifery curricula. The Tool Kits are organized by program and describe how to “weave” evidence-based oral-systemic health content, teaching-learning strategies, and clinical experiences into pediatric, family, adult-gerontology, women’s health, psychiatric-mental health nurse practitioner and midwifery programs, as well as into all undergraduate nursing courses.
These Tool Kits can serve as a starting point for faculty, clinicians, and organizations as they work to play a leadership role in building interprofessional oral health workforce capacity to improve oral health access, decrease oral health disparities, improve oral health and overall health outcomes, prepare for accreditation, and enhance the health of the communities they serve.
How to Begin
Read Putting the Mouth Back In the Head: HEENT to HEENOT (Haber at al., 2015) to begin understanding the importance of including the oral examination as an integral part of every patient assessment.
Identify Oral Health Champions who can advocate for the necessity of including oral health as a standard component of education and clinical practice to others
Pick and choose assignments from the pertinent tool kit (Undergraduate, PNP, FNP, AGPCNP, AGACNP, PMHNP, WHNP or CNM) that fit in with your existing course content, thereby “weaving” oral health into the curriculum. For example, you can seamlessly include assignments on the oral implications of diabetes into your lecture on diabetes!
Changing the status quo always requires effort, but, step-by-step, we can begin to change clinical practice! As always, the OHNEP leaders and staff are available to answer any questions you may have on integrating oral health into education using the Interprofessional Oral Health Faculty Tool Kit. Please contact us at ohnep@nyu.edu.
Click on the images below to download tool kits:
