Professional Practitioner Development I

Catalog description

This course provides the foundation for students to understand knowledge, skills and attitudes that dental students must develop as professional dental care providers for success in dental practice. Three modules comprise this course: Ethics, Practice Management and Professionalism, and Behavior Management. Module 1 Ethics prepares students to enter the clinical practice of dentistry; build relationships with patients, colleagues and faculty; and develop a moral framework for clinical decision-making. The module follows the principle that by discussing ethical challenges and creating a plan for approaching them one can be a more ethical clinician when faced with dilemmas in real life. Module 2 Practice Management and Professionalism includes synchronous and asynchronous lectures and seminars on the following topics: developing career goals; concepts in leadership and mentorship; dental business basics; risk management and overview of dental insurance, CDT and coding. Seminars focus on application of lecture concepts to developing dental practice in leadership, insurance and risk management. Module 3: Behavior Management provides students with the knowledge and skills to communicate with and manage appropriately a diverse group of clinical patients at Penn Dental Medicine. Topics include discussion of patients' perception of dentists and dental care, patient adherence and motivational interviewing, health disparities, management of diverse patients with psychiatric disorders, patients with fear, anxiety, phobias and pain, as well as review of the dentist's role in identifying and managing patients experiencing abuse (child abuse and intimate partner violence) and addiction disorders. Experiences with four standardized patients are scheduled to provide the foundational knowledge and skills in patient management with diverse and challenging patients. Motivational…