October 14, 2009

2009 Graduates Transition to Active ADHA Membership
Congratulations on your recent graduation!  Once you’re a licensed registered dental hygienist, you qualify for active membership at no additional cost.  As an active member, you’ll be able to explore your career options, increase your professional edge, and get discounts on professional items such as loupes, books, scrubs and car rentals and insurance, just to name a few.  Remember: Transition to active membership once you receive your license.

Online
Log in to your account at ADHA.org and click on “Convert to Active Member”

Call
(312) 440-8900 and press 1

Email

1. Your name
2. ADHA member ID number
3. License number
4. State of licensure

Send to us at: member.services@adha.net

The Academy for Academic Leadership (AAL) is now accepting registrations
The Academy for Academic Leadership (AAL) is now accepting registrations for two phases of its popular Institute for Allied Health Educators (IAHE) online program to be held in 2010.

The IAHE is a professional, online development program designed to prepare faculty in allied health professions education for successful academic careers. Over the past three years, with the assistance of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry, 97 allied health educators have participated in the IAHE. The 2009 class on Teaching Foundations was the first to experience the Institute entirely online, with four synchronous sessions and three self-study modules. The new approach gave participants maximum flexibility and convenience and garnered very positive evaluations, including the following:

A very approachable form of distance learning. Very knowledgeable faculty.
-- Carol Brightwell RDH, BS, Clinical Professor, Tyler Junior College

Excellent program for new as well as experienced educators. Has allowed me to better assess and further develop my teaching skills.
-- Wendy M. Garcia, RDH, MSEd, Clinical Instructor, University of Bridgeport, Fones School of Dental Hygiene

An OUTSTANDING course. Extremely well organized with expert instructors, relevant and applicable material and engaging open forums which allow you to provide and hear useful feedback.
-- Marianne Contino, RDH, Clinical Instructor, University of Pennsylvania

To give even more allied dental educators the chance to experience this program, the Teaching Foundations sessions will be provided again in January 2010, and the all-new Advances in Educational Methods for Allied Health Educators will be offered in June 2010.

Educators enrolled in the IAHE, whether new to academia or seasoned faculty in need of a mid-career boost, will gain experience with key classroom and clinical teaching practices. Applications for phase one will be accepted until December 28, 2009; phase two will be open for registration until May 31, 2010.

Each session will be archived, so if registrants miss a session, they can view a podcast that features all of the slides, video and audio. They also can correspond with the instructors between sessions to clarify any lessons they wish. The 2009 class reported great satisfaction with these features.

Information about the 2010 programs and registration forms for both phases are available at the AAL website: http://www.academicleaders.org/iahe.html.

For more information about the IAHE, contact AAL Chief Operating Officer George Weinstein at gweinstein@academicleaders.org or 404-350-2098.

Hygienists needed for NIOSH health and safety hazards survey
ADHA is working with the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in developing a survey for health care workers.  We are looking for dental hygienists to participate in a 90-minute interview to help evaluate a survey addressing the use of high-level disinfectants. 

To be eligible for the interview, you must use high-level disinfectants on a routine (weekly) basis. These agents include glutaraldehyde, ortho-phthaldehyde, peracetic acid, hydrogen peroxide or hydrogen peroxide/peracetic acid mixture.  The purpose of the interview is to assess whether the survey questions make sense, are easy to answer and that everyone understands the questions the same way.  The eligible participant will be reimbursed $200 for his/her time.
 
Benefits to the participant may include increased knowledge of health and safety hazards of health care workers, and the types of controls and work practices that are used to eliminate or reduce exposures.  There are no known physical or psychological risks from taking part in this study.
 
All information you provide will be kept confidential and destroyed at the end of the study.  To see if you qualify, please contact Martha Popovic at 1-800-WESTAT1 (937-8281), extension 5897 or at 240-314-5897.

Opportunity: Recruiting participants for the ADA Evidence Reviewer Workshop
The ADA is recruiting participants for the ADA Evidence Reviewer Program to write one page critical summaries of systematic reviews on dental and oral health care topics. Evidence reviewers will have the opportunity to review state-of-the-art information on key clinical issues, enrich themselves professionally and achieve authorship recognition for each critical summary that they write. The critical summaries will be published on the ADA's EBD Web site and may also be selected for publication in The Journal of the American Dental Association.

Selected evidence reviewers will attend a two-day workshop on Nov. 19 and 20 at Louisiana State University. Participating dentists will receive continuing education credit for attending the workshop and for each critical summary that they write.  If admitted to the programs, individuals are expected to write 10 critical summaries over a two-year period.

"The workshop was a great opportunity to expand my knowledge and learn from colleagues on how to critique systematic reviews to identify strengths and weaknesses in evidence. It gave me the opportunity to meet dentists in private practice and educators from all over the country. I found out we are so much alike but so different. It was inspiring, educational and the best CE I have attended in a long time," said Dr. Hana Hasson, Clinical Associate Professor, Temple University.

The following EBD experts provide oversight for the EBD Web site, mentor the evidence reviewers and instruct the workshop: James Bader, University of North Carolina; Janet Clarkson, Cochrane Oral Health Group; Paul Farsai, Boston University; Carlos Flores-Mir, University of Alberta; John Gunsolley, Virginia Commonwealth University; Philippe Hujoel, University of Washington; Mike John, University of Minnesota; Asbjorn Jokstad, University of Toronto; Joseph Matthews, University of New Mexico; Deborah Matthews, Dalhousie University; Sergio Uribe, Universidad Austral de Chile; and Robert Weyant, University of Pittsburgh.

"It was really exciting to be talking to the leaders in the field and learning from them the science of evaluating systematic reviews," said Dr. Heather Hill, National Library of Medicine Fellow at Oregon Health and Science University.

Please visit http://ebd.ada.org/Volunteer.aspx for more information or to apply to the program.

America’s Toothfairy Celebrates Her Partners In Prevention!
In honor of National Dental Hygiene Month, National Children’s Oral Health Foundation: America's ToothfairyÒ(NCOHF) sends a heartfelt thank you to all of our dental hygienist partners who work each and every day as real-life toothfairies.  You provide our children with quality oral health care, as well as the tools and guidance needed to continue a successful oral hygiene routine at home.  NCOHF shares your passionate commitment to education and prevention, and we are proud to work with such a dedicated group of professionals through our partnership with ADHA and its Institute for Oral Health.  Together we will eliminate the #1 chronic childhood illness in America – pediatric dental disease!  Visit www.AmericasToothfairy.org or www.ADHA.org to learn how you can become involved in our partnership through the ADHA Institute/NCOHF Toothfairy Grant Fund.
 
NCOHF has created a special Certificate of Appreciation just for dental hygienists to celebrate National Dental Hygiene Month.  Click here to personalize and print your certificate on our website, then hang it proudly for your patients to see!  You can print one for yourself and send personalized certificates to other real-life toothfairies who keep our children healthy, happy and smiling all year round!

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