Grants to help with dental needs and in understanding impact of community service learning in undergraduate curriculum
Fourth-year dental students with program director Dr. Abbas Jessani at the Woodstock clinic.
By Communications
Two grants totalling more than $545,000, give students at Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry the chance to collaborate to meet the oral health care needs of under-served populations in our own backyard.
A $520,000 Strategic Priority Funds (SPF) grant – awarded to Dr. Abbas Jessani, Assistant Professor, Division of Restorative Dentistry and Director, Oral Health Outreach and Community Services Learning and Dr. Sarah McLean, Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology and Director, Schulich Education Enhancement Division (SEED) – will address the unmet oral healthcare needs by providing free targeted dental treatments for people living with HIV, the 2SLGBT+ community, refugees and other equity-seeking groups in southwestern Ontario.
Dr. Abbas Jessani, Assistant Professor, Division of Restorative Dentistry and Director, Oral Health Outreach and Community Services Learning
McLean and Honours Specialization in Interdisciplinary Medical Sciences BMSc students enrolled in the IMS CEL Capstone course will collaborate with dental undergraduate students to create educational resources.
The goal of project is to develop student leaders and oral healthcare providers with the skills and sense of responsibility to provide much-needed oral health services and support needed for these communities.
“This is a long-term, sustainable initiative that will benefit both dental trainees and IMS students by giving them responsibility for person-centred oral healthcare of patients combined with the benefits of collaborating together,” Jessani said.
“I believe in providing our students with authentic learning experiences that benefit our local London community,” said McLean. “This collaboration will enable our IMS students to gain hands-on experience in health communication, mentorship from dental trainees, and create tangible change.”
The initiative will be up-and-running by early next year.
Dr. Sarah McLean, Associate Professor, Anatomy and Cell Biology and Director, Schulich Education Enhancement Division (SEED)
A second grant goes to a group of collaborators, including Jessani and McLean, as well as Dr. Chris Watling, Professor, Departments of Oncology, Clinical Neurological Sciences, and Family Medicine, and Director, Centre for Education Research and Education, and Dr. Jacqueline Torti, Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine and Faculty of Education.
The Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) grant of $25,000 will help build a greater understanding of the effects of service learning experiences at the Oxford County Community Health Centre (OCCHC) on undergraduate dental students. Through interviews and journaling, the study will investigate the impact of community service learning on students, and the level of empathy the program creates going forward.
“Collaborating with community is all about reciprocity and developing civically-minded future leaders. By investigating the role of empathy in community service learning, we can further understand the important relationship between students and patients,” said McLean.
The OCCHC provides medical care, community support, and health promotion for low-income and marginalized groups in Oxford County.
“We need to understand the impact of community service learning on our learners, to see how they carry forward this training after graduation,” Jessani said.
