Increasing access to oral health care in underserved areas of Missouri: dental hygiene students in AHEC rotations.

In 2004 personnel from the Missouri Area Health Education Centers and faculty from the University of Missouri-Kansas City, School of Dentistry, Division of Dental Hygiene, joined forces to develop dental hygiene student rotations to rural and underserved areas. Twenty-six students participated in a two week rotation to Federally Qualifed Health Centers throughout Missouri. The rotations included objectives which focused on student familiarity with 1) the similarities and differences between private practice and public health clinics, 2) assessing, planning, implementing and evaluating an oral health education program, 3) working with a diverse population; and 4) an understanding of the ethics of delivering healthcare to a whole community versus individual patients. Additionally, the rotation sought to continue to develop the students' clinical skills under supervised instruction. The rotation was evaluated using various qualitative and quantitative measurements, including journals, task records and post-program surveys. This article reports on the results of the qualitative and quantitative measures used for evaluating the objectives of the project.