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The Nation’s Health

The U.S. dental workforce is welcoming more women into its ranks, which could have implications for access to oral health care.

In July, the University of Albany’s Oral Health Workforce Research Center released a new study on the demographics of women in dentistry and the related potential impacts for underserved communities.

According to the study, in 2016, nearly 30% of all U.S. dentists were women, compared to 24% in 2010. Overall, women dentists were also younger and more diverse than men in the field, with higher proportions of black, Hispanic and foreign-trained dentists. Women dentists were also more likely to serve young patients, practice in urban areas and care for patients with public insurance coverage, such as Medicaid.

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Dentistry Today

Primary care postgraduate dental training programs supported by competitive Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA) grant funding play a significant role in providing care to underserved populations, according to a study from the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies…

…“While this research is limited to a subset of HRSA’s overall investments, the study clearly shows the impact of federal funding on building institutional capacity to produce a sufficient dental workforce to meet the demand in primary care dentistry,” said OHWRC investigator Elizabeth Mertz. “The graduates of these programs are contributing in large measure to the oral healthcare of vulnerable and underserved patients in the US.”

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Ithaca.com

An innovative training program bringing medical residents to Cayuga Medical Center in 2019 for their residencies will help attract new primary care physicians to the region. With more primary care physicians, patients will find it easier to schedule medical visits and enroll as new patients with medical practices…

…Tompkins and nearby counties face a growing shortage of primary care physicians. A 2017 study by the School of Public Health at the State University of New York at Albany found large differences in where primary care physicians practice in the eight-county Southern Tier region. The area’s urban counties of Tompkins, Broome and Chemung have one primary care physician for about every 900 residents. In the region’s five rural counties, there is one primary care physician for about every 1,700 residents. Community health planners predict a growing shortage of primary care doctors in all Southern Tier counties as the region’s existing physicians retire, and its demographics shift to an older population needing more primary health care services.

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Dentistry Today

Dentistry has seen significant changes in the demographics of those who practice, particularly when it comes to gender, according to the Oral Health Workforce Research Center (OHWRC) at the University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS).

Collaborating with the ADA, the OHWRC studied differences in dental practice characteristics and service delivery by gender to anticipate changes that might affect the availability of dental services for underserved populations in the future.

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Becker’s Dental and DSO Review

More women are entering the dental field compared to past years, according to a study conducted by the American Dental Association and the University of Albany (N.Y.) Center for Health Workforce Studies.

The study, published July 11, evaluated the differences in dental practice characteristics and service delivery by gender.

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13WHAM

Rochester, N.Y. – Friday was Match Day at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry. Nearly 100 students have been placed in programs to complete their residency training in 27 states…

…According to data from the Center for Health Workforce Studies, when surrounded counties are included, the number of primary care doctors per patient drops.

But compared to the state, the finger lakes region has more primary care doctors that some other parts of the state.

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Buffalo.edu

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Nearly twice as many students from underrepresented groups enrolled in the class of 2022 at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University at Buffalo than in the previous year.

According to data from the Office of Medical Admissions at the Jacobs School, 33 students out of 180 students in the Class of 2022 are from underrepresented groups. The previous year, the first year that the Jacobs School’s incoming class size increased from 144 to 180, there were 18 students from underrepresented groups.

“Last year, we had a total of 18 underrepresented students, so we have almost doubled the number this year,” said Dori Marshall, MD, associate dean of admissions at the Jacobs School and clinical assistant professor of psychiatry…

…Even in a diverse state like New York, where African-Americans and Hispanics/Latinos comprise more than 30 percent of the population, she added, they make up just 12 percent of the state’s physician workforce, according to data from the SUNY Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies.

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Nurse.com

Faculty have long included digital learning in traditional onsite courses. But today’s approach to blended learning uses course design strategies and technology to actively engage the learner in a mix of onsite and online education, according to Rita F. D’Aoust, PhD, ANP-BC, CNE, FAANP, FNAP, FAAN, associate dean for teaching and learning at Johns Hopkins SON in Baltimore…

…Blended online and in-class approaches to nursing education are increasing, according to Jean Moore, DrPH, MSN, FAAN, director for the Center for Health Workforce Studies at the School of Public Health, State University of New York at Albany.

“For instance, UAlbany is exploring the possibility of a BSN completer program, and that is how it will operate,” she said.

By law, RNs in New York have to earn a BSN within 10 years of initial licensure. So, there’s great interest in the state to create opportunities for nurses to get their bachelor’s degrees through completer programs. Offering an online component to the completer programs makes them more accessible to nurses in parts of the state with fewer established BSN programs, according to Moore. “In New York, there aren’t as many BSN programs upstate as there are downstate,” Moore said. “The question is how do you make sure you have an adequate supply of nurses upstate, particularly in rural areas? That’s where I think building relationships between associate degree programs and BSN completers that offer the blended approach just makes a whole lot of sense.”

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Pew Trusts

A strong research base finds that dental sealants are highly effective in preventing tooth decay. Sealants can reduce the risk of decay in permanent molars—the teeth most prone to cavities—by 80 percent in the first two years after application and continue to be effective after more than four years.

Yet most low-income children—who are least likely to receive routine dental care—lack sealants. According to the most recent data, 61 percent of low-income 6- to 11-year-olds (6.5 million) lacked sealants.2 A recent study found that if all 6.5 million low-income children who lacked sealants were to receive them, it would prevent 3.4 million cavities over four years.3 With this strong evidence of sealants’ effectiveness, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Association of State and Territorial Dental Directors, the American Association of Public Health Dentistry, and numerous other health organizations recommend sealant programs in schools, especially as an optimal location to provide low-income children with preventive care.4 Yet a 2015 Pew report found that such programs are in fewer than half of high-need schools in 39 states…

…State practice acts might include requirements that dentists examine children before a hygienist can seal their teeth in school, that dentists be present while a hygienist performs this service, or that private dentists cannot employ hygienists working in schools. They may also include rules that set very low limits on the numbers of school-based hygienists that any one dentist can supervise. In describing dental hygiene scope of practice rules, a 2016 report from the national Oral Health Workforce Research Center stated, “State-based regulatory constraints for dental hygienists may impede access to care as much as the economic and logistical barriers that are known to prevent some patients from obtaining oral health services.”5 In more recent research, the center found that a “more autonomous dental hygienist scope of practice had a positive and significant association with population oral health in both 2001 and 2014.”

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ASPPH

The Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) at the University at Albany School of Public Health recently announced the release of the New York State Health Workforce Planning Data Guide. The new website is an interactive, user-friendly tool that applies visualization techniques to data on health care in New York, including its workforce.

The data guide allows for comparisons by region or by county, and illustrates changes over time.

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