dental hygiene

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Dimensions of Dental Hygiene

A recent report by the Oral Health Workforce Research Center at the University at Albany Center for Health Workforce Studies in New York has shed light on the prevalence and effects of stress among oral health professionals working in nonprofit dental facilities serving disadvantaged populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic intensified burnout issues among healthcare professionals, including those in oral health, due to the risk of COVID-19 infection. The survey analyzed clinicians in 25 United States community health centers, revealing that 79.3% of oral health providers reported experiencing burnout, a rate comparable to primary care and mental/behavioral health clinicians.

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Dimensions of Dental Hygiene

ALBANY, N.Y. (July 21, 2017) — Oral health workforce researchers at University at Albany’s Center for Health Workforce Studies (CHWS) have released an infographic designed to help policy makers better understand differences in dental hygiene scopes of practice across states. 

Scopes of practice for health professionals are defined in states’ laws and regulations, describing allowable services, settings and supervisory requirements. CHWS researchers examined 2014 scope-of-practice parameters for dental hygienists across the 50 states and found that that in states where dental hygiene scope of practice rules were more closely aligned with dental hygiene professional competence, there was a positive and statistically significant association with population oral health.

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Health Affairs Blog

While 2017 promises to be an eventful year in health policy, it’s worth reflecting back on what we learned in 2016. As Health Affairs Editor-in-Chief, I have the pleasure of reading hundreds of articles each year — more, I’m sure, than most of our readers have time to read. I have selected my own “top ten” for 2016. The papers I chose go beyond our “most-read” and “most-shared” articles, which, this year, were disproportionately on topics related to health care costs. My list of articles covers a broad range of topics. Many of these articles analyze the effects of a specific policy; others raise the profile of issues that deserve more attention. Some articles had unexpected findings. Their shared attribute is that the authors chose to focus on interesting and important questions.  These are my favorites for the year — whether they are yours or not, I hope you find them interesting, enjoy reading them, and learn something from them.

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