Clinic Journals Updated version
Annie Chitlall
Dental Hygiene
Principles of Dental Hygiene Care II
Activity Description: Provide a brief description of the activity
Students will write clinic journals in Dental 1200. Each journal will be written on a completed patient. However, an entry will be made after each phase of patient care. Each student will incorporate ethical reasoning and critical thinking during the phases of the assignment. The students will enter the journal on the Den 1200 open lab site. There will be an open discussion between each student and his/her clinic advisor about the level of patient care provided.
Learning Goals: What do you aim to achieve with this activity?
• For students to reflect on the patient care provided at each appointment and discern if the client goals for care were reached in that session. Ethical self -awareness constitutes a major portion of the patient care process in dental hygiene. Students will have an opportunity to reflect on each clinical session spent with a patient and reflect based on the dental hygiene code of ethics what could have been done differently for a patient. The students will evaluate the different ethical concepts of dental hygiene patient care to answer the following question- Did the patient really need all the services that was planned and implemented or did you create a patient care plan based on your clinical requirements?
• Students will reflect and critique if the patient care plan that was created for that clinical session was appropriate based the patient’s oral health needs. They will also have an opportunity to understand the different ethical concepts that are part of patient care process. A student can use these journal entries to determine for themselves if the patient received optimum care.
• Students will have an opportunity to highlight ethical issue recognition by reflecting whether or not the patient care was not completed after one clinical session because that patient did not satisfy a clinical requirement for that student.
Timing: At what point in the lesson or semester do you use this activity? How much classroom time do you devote to it? How much out-of-class time is expected?
This assignment is distributed to the students during orientation at the beginning of the semester, there will be a discussion about the number of patients needed for the semester during which the journal entry requirements will be introduced. Students will post a clinical journal within 48 hours of each patient’s appointment for every clinic session. Clinical journals are to be written after each step of patient care is completed. This activity will not occur in the classroom. Students will need about 2-3 hours out-of-class time to complete these journals if they the recommended timeline is followed. This assignment will occur throughout the semester until all patients are completed.
Logistics: What preparation is needed for this activity? What instructions do you give students? Is the activity low-stakes, high-stakes, or something else?
Preparation for this assignment will be a review and of the assignment along with a sample journal entry that students will follow and the handout given for the assignment. The students need to be able to demonstrate writing mechanics, understanding, and completeness of the assignment. This activity is low-stakes because the grade is a tiny portion of their overall average, however, it can also be a high-stakes because a student will not pass the course if they fail to complete the assignment.
Assessment: How do you assess this activity? What assessment measures do you use? Do you use a VALUE rubric? If not, how did you develop your rubric? Is your course part of the college-wide general education assessment initiative?
An appropriate AAC&U VALUE rubric will be used for the evaluation. However, students will be graded on based on completeness and understanding of the assignment. The student must demonstrate a sophisticated understanding of the concepts in the assignment and must address all elements in the assignment in an appropriate length. The writing must be clear, concise, and correct. No spelling or grammatical errors. Extremely well organized
Reflection: How well did this activity work in your classroom? Would you repeat it? Why or why not? What challenges did you encounter, and how did you address them? What, if anything, would you change? What did students seem to enjoy about the activity?
Currently and from previous experience, the students are not required to complete a journal entry after each clinical session but instead are required to submit three completed journals by the end of the semester. This results in students waiting for the last day of classes to submit this assignment and does not allow for any open discussions between instructors and students. The last-minute submissions or journals have not yielded positive results since most entries are missing pertinent information and students do not have an opportunity for open discussion with assigned faculty members. I would like this activity to be repeated but will modify the requirements for submission. Students will develop a better appreciation of this assignment if after each patient care visit there is a required entry for that visit and an evaluation of their goals for a specific aspect of the patient care process was met. Over the semesters the biggest challenge is receiving these journal entries in a timely manner. Most students wait for the deadline date and post their entries at midnight, this does not allow for a discussion and often results in a low grade. Students seem to enjoy the self-reflection portion of the assignment most.
Additional Information: Please share any additional comments and further documentation of the activity – e.g. assignment instructions, rubrics, examples of student work, etc. These can be links to pages or posts on the OpenLab.
Students are required to write clinic journals in Dental 1200. Each journal will be written on a completed patient. However, an entry will be made after each clinical session with a patient or within 48 hours of the appointment. Each student needs to incorporate ethical reasoning and critical thinking during the phases of the assignment. Each entry should reflect that the student has asked themselves what does ethics mean to you in the dental hygiene patient care process and how did you incorporate the dental hygiene code of ethics in your patient care for each clinical session. Students will enter the journal entries on the Den 1200 open lab site. There will be an open discussion between each student and his/her clinic advisor about the level of patient care provided for each entry that is made. Each journal entry needs to include the level of patient care that was provided based on the goals that were set for that patient.
Please share a helpful link to a pages or post on the OpenLab
