The Panhandle Community Services of Gering has received a three-year,
$221,690 grant from the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services
System Nebraska Healthcare Cash Fund (tobacco settlement fund) which has
allowed the University of Nebraska Medical Center to expand its dental
hygiene program in western Nebraska.
PCS, located in Gering, has subcontracted with the University of Nebraska
Medical Center College of Dentistry, which is located in Lincoln, to make
its dental hygiene program accessible in Western Nebraska. The first students
began classes in August.
The UNMC College of Dentistrys dental hygiene program is a two-year
program upon which students earn a bachelors degree in dental hygiene.
Students enter the dental hygiene program with two years of undergraduate
prerequisite courses.
Dental hygienists are licensed oral health professionals whose focus
is preventing and treating oral diseases. Dental hygienists perform oral
health care assessments, expose, process, and interpret dental X-rays,
remove plaque and tartar, apply cavity-preventive agents such as fluorides
and sealants and teach proper oral hygiene.
Dental hygiene students will attend class at PCS and use distance learning
technology to access Lincoln classes. They will share student services
with nursing students at the UNMC College of Nursing West Nebraska Division
in Scottsbluff. Dental hygiene students will perform clinical skills in
the dental facilities at PCS.
Were very excited about the partnership with the College of Dentistry
for a variety of reasons, said Margo Hartman, deputy director of PCS.
Over the past year we have updated our needs assessment. During
that process people indicated that access to dental care was a need throughout
the panhandle. Its an opportunity for those who want to become dental
hygienists to live here and not have to move to Lincoln to go to school
to become a dental hygienist.
PCS recently has expanded its facilities and plans to have four dental
patient care rooms where students will learn clinical hygiene skills with
patients at PCS.
We see this opportunity as positive economic development. And after
graduation, students can find good paying jobs with which they can support
themselves and their families, Hartman said. We serve children and adults
in our community and surrounding areas whom may not get dental care otherwise.
The addition of students in our facility will enable us to help more children
and adults, as well as free dentists to do more dental care.
George Schlothauer, D.D.S., an area private practice dentist who serves
on the PCS Health Committee, is looking forward to the partnership. There
are nothing but pluses for the establishment of the hygiene program here
in Gering. Being in western Nebraska so far from the college is especially
hard to get young trained dental hygienists to return. Quite often they
get married and then it is very difficult for both to find employment in
a rural setting.
Our hope is that if we train the students here, they more than likely
will elect to stay either here or locate nearby. As individuals like me
get closer to retiring, there will be a great demand for both dentists
and hygienists, Dr. Schlothauer said. We are very fortunate to have the
facility that we have at PCS and an abundance of patients that need hygiene
services. I am very excited about the program and I think it will be a
program that we can all be proud of.
John Reinhardt, D.D.S., dean of the UNMC College of Dentistry, said
the college has tried for a decade to increase the pool of students in
the western part of the state. There is a big shortage of dental hygienists
in western Nebraska, from Grand Island west, he said. We are taking the
program to the students in hopes we can encourage them to graduate and
practice in the shortage areas. Weve been hoping for this program for
more than a decade. But we didnt get it funded until now. We were just
waiting for the opportunity.
The college has hired a faculty member, Todd Junge, a graduate of the
UNMC dental hygiene program, said Gwen Hlava, chair of the Department of
Dental Hygiene, UNMC College of Dentistry.
David Brown, Ph.D., executive associate dean, UNMC College of Dentistry
and professor of oral biology, said students who enroll will learn the
same academics and clinical program as their colleagues. The only difference
will be in the classroom where students will see and communicate with faculty
and fellow students in Lincoln in real time, live via satellite or internet
communications.
This is simply an extension of our program, Dr. Brown said. Its
exactly the same program except that the students will be in the
Scottsbluff/Gering area. All of the academic instruction will come from
Lincoln. The intent is to draw students from western Nebraska who are interested
in building a dental hygiene practice in their home area.
Dr. Brown said he expects to see traditional as well as non-traditional
students who are changing careers. The more hygienists we can have in
underserved areas, the better, he said. In Nebraska, we have a problem
of access to oral health care. There really is a health care crisis in
dentistry in the western part of the state.
Drs. Reinhardt and Brown credit PCS with making this program possible
in the local area.
PCS is a non-profit community-based organization that serves low-income
and disadvantaged people, and those unable to meet their needs through
other sources.
The mission of the UNMC College of Dentistry is to educate dental health
professionals and to improve the health of the citizens of Nebraska through
excellence in research, patient care and outreach. The college serves Nebraska
students and those in states that have no dental schools, including Kansas,
South Dakota and Wyoming. For six of the last nine years, the colleges
freshman class has ranked first among the 55 U.S. dental schools for incoming
grade-point average. The college offers programs in doctor of dental surgery
(D.D.S.), bachelors degree in dental hygiene, a general practice residency
program and post-graduate specialty programs in endodontics, orthodontics,
periodontics, and pediatric dentistry.
UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational
programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing
in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education,
research, patient care and outreach, UNMC has established itself as one
of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism
preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics,
biomedical technology and arthritis. In the past year, UNMCs research
funding from external sources increased by 23 percent and now exceeds $50
million annually. In that same period, federal funding increased by 36
percent and now exceeds $34 million.
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