The Evaluation Process!

1#    In this weeks readings we learned about coaching. Coaching comes to mind for this subject in the argument that I would need to recognize the uniqueness and relationship I have with that student. I would have to coach encouragement. As it says, "Encouragement- When simple or brief corrections are needed. Intended outcome- to improve performance." Although this is a big deal I would not get mad at the student for missing one step. I would have to encourage her to use her critical thinking skills and ask the student "Why did your patient have a knee replacement?" Before signing her radiographs. Hopefully this would take her mind back to the joint replacement and remember to ask if he needed a pre-med. This way I am giving the already bright student a chance to quickly correct her mistake before moving on. If she does not realize her mistake I would have to give her a targeted learning contract of re-reading the dental hygiene clinical book with the chapters over joint replacements and the procedure of treatment. I would make the student write a paper of why it is important that a joint replacement patient be pre medicated. I would have to grade the student based on her report.




2#  I feel like my bad day has nothing to do with the students. So I would not get mad that the student has missed seven pieces of calculus. Depending on what year the student is I would have to grade accordingly. A first year student I would make them hold on to my hand lightly and to feel what I feel. This way they can get the feel of calculus and the correct way to explore the area. I would show them how to adapt the explorer into the overlapping areas of the teeth. I would then have them show me and give them a second chance. I would write down the areas of the teeth that I found calculus and tell them to get me as soon as they believe they are finished. If it were a senior who has already had a similar situation and should have learned the instrumentation of exploring I would fail them. The first question I should ask my self would be "What learning objective or expectation hasn't been met?" (122, HCT). This senior student would not only fail the patient but be given a remediation of finding another patient compatible to the classification of the failed patient. This will give the student another chance to scale, but hopefully the student will realize on their next patient to take their time while exploring.

A classmate of mine could not make it to table clinics so she was made to find remediation by going to Cherry Valley for annual session and giving her speech there. I went along with her because annual session is fun and our topic was pretty hard!

Accreditation

While reading the ADA accreditation document I passed over "Patients with special needs." The school I went to was located across the street from government housing so we were very blessed to get a variety of patients. Patients being very easy to very difficult. I was very happy to be so lucky to work on a variety of patients but I thought it was just location. I always wondered why we needed a special needs patient, child, and geriatric patient just because we always had so many diverse people in our school. I now realize its nationally needed. For a good reason too because I think its better to be well rounded and ready for the real world. Another accreditation I thought was made up by teacher was ADPIE. I thought they made the whole acronym up their self. It was very good way for us to get information on each patient. We had to fill out an ADPIE sheet on each patient every day and it helped us to treatment plan each patient correctly. Other than those two I pretty much understood the other accreditations because our program administrator was a huge STICKLER for the rules. If anything was broken or misunderstood we were quickly reminded.

Education

Starting off as a dental assistant I realized that most things we learn in school are not used in most practices. So I already had a head start on the things "I" believed were more important to keep in my memory, not saying that was the smartest idea. Yet, a couple things I kept fresh in my memory included local anesthesia and Periodontal issues compared with the systemic link. I have only given Local anesthesia to one patient outside of school yet I felt completely prepared. As weird as it sounds I brought in a chart we made in class that gave all the locations for different areas to anesthetize. It also told me whether to use a long or short needle, angulation, depth, and amount. I am very happy that I thought to save this chart because it truly was a life saver, for me and the patient. The patient was very happy said they felt no pain and no anxiety which is good meaning I held composure and did not let them know that they were my first patient! Another important lesson I brought with me from school to the office was the Oral systemic link. My perio teacher pushed the subject on us so much I can't help but to remember. I feel totally comfortable teaching each and every patient the concerns of periodontist and how it relates to the rest of their body. I believe the quote is true. I do not remember everything from school I honestly think I remember less than 50% of the material yet I feel like I have a very good education. I can talk clinically to a group of scholars and I can teach a novice important material. Critical thinking and problem solving go hand in hand and are used for different situations I don't believe that one is better than the other but that they help the person analyze a situation to find out the answer. Both are used in the dental hygiene setting to find out what is causing halitosis to finding out a solution to get your patient to be more attentive to their oral health care.

!?Questions?!

If I were in the situation where a student overlooked a lesion on the buccal mucosa I would ask the patient to tell me more about the patient's soft tissue. This would allow the student to look at more than the buccal mucosa. The would have to look at the soft tissue posterior to the roof of their mouth, buccal mucosa, and dorsal and ventral areas of the tongue. It would direct their attention to the area you want them to observe without giving it away. Once the student finds the lesion a good follow up question would be. What are some possible causes of the lesion and what may the severity be?

What makes a great teacher

I had a teacher while at Cuyahoga Community College that will forever be one of my greatest role models. She was always so positive in all of our clinical skills. Most of the teachers from my program were great people outside of clinic but in clinic I always felt like I was being mocked or judged by them. Yet, my favorite teacher, she understood us as a class. She always said she remembered being in hygiene school herself and how stressful it was. She was one of the easiest instructors to talk to, yet at the same time very strict. Deadlines were deadlines and she was very tough on grammar. The class she taught was periodontics, I remember writing a fifty page paper on prominent bacteria involved in periodontal disease. This was due the week we returned from spring break so of course we all started it during that week. She showed great patience toward all of us when we called every hour of the day during spring break. Spring break for her was just called work. Patience was one of her many strong points another was her flexibility to work with students. She had set office hours but she was always willing to meet you before, after and even during school. After reading the chapters in HCT I feel as if my role model meets all of the qualities of a great instructor. I'm sure she's not perfect but she inspires me to pursue my future and want to keep learning.