UAMS Partnership to Graduate First Dental Hygienists

By Nate Hinkel

 The five 2011 graduates of the UAMS dental hygiene program hosted at Arkansas State University Mountain Home are (seated from left) Stephanie King, Jamie Payne and Ashley Walsh. Standing are (from left) Lindsey Tyler and Hannah Johnston.

Courses are taught by UAMS dental hygiene faculty from the Little Rock campus using interactive video.
Mountain Home dental hygiene students get hands-on experience with real patients through a clinical affiliation with the Mountain Home Christian Clinic.

Mountain Home dental hygiene students get hands-on experience with real patients through a clinical affiliation with the Mountain Home Christian Clinic.

May 19, 2011 | Five days a week, Ashley Walsh of Mammoth Spring is happy to drive the hour to Mountain Home for classes in dental hygiene.

Walsh is one of five students about to become the first group to graduate the UAMS dental hygiene program hosted at Arkansas State University Mountain Home (ASUMH). Taking classes and gaining clinical experience in Mountain Home was two hours closer for her than coming to the UAMS campus in Little Rock.

“I had been interested in dental hygiene before I knew of the program in Mountain Home,” Walsh said. “It was definitely a selling point, though. I figured when I found out that things were just lining up perfectly for me.”

The distant location for the dental hygiene program started in fall 2009 following a regional needs assessment for hygienists by the Department of Dental Hygiene in the UAMS College of Health Related Professions.

“We conducted the assessment of current and projected need for dental hygienists in north central Arkansas at the request of several dentists in that region,” said Susan Long, Ed.D., professor and chairman of the Department of Dental Hygiene. “That assessment indicated a perceived shortage of dental hygienists both now and in the future.”

The classroom portion of the program is hosted at Arkansas State University Mountain Home, where students are taught via interactive video by dental hygiene faculty in Little Rock. UAMS faculty members in Mountain Home provide laboratory and clinical instruction.

The Mountain Home Christian Clinic allows use of their facility for the clinical portion of the program. Also supporting the program is the UAMS Area Health Education Center (AHEC) North Central.

First consideration in student selection is given to qualified applicants from the 10-county region served by the AHEC North Central since the primary goal of the school was to meet the need for hygienists in that area.

Long said the students in Mountain Home receive the same instruction from the same faculty at the same time as the students on the Little Rock campus.

Nancy Smith, M.Ed., an assistant professor in the UAMS dental hygiene program who works at the Mountain Home facility, said student selection is becoming increasingly competitive as awareness of the distant location is driving up the number of applicants.

“A lot of students probably wouldn’t have gone into the program without the location closer to home,” said Smith, adding that students are not just coming from the Mountain Home area but – like Walsh – from across the mostly rural region.

The students are gaining hands-on experience with real patients in the clinic under supervision while providing valuable examinations and teeth cleaning services, she said. Many of those patients do not have insurance and may not have seen a dentist in years, she said.

Some of the graduates already have jobs lined up after graduation, Smith said.

Walsh said she originally became interested in dental hygiene because of an aunt who works as an assistant in a dental clinic. A friend who is a dental hygienist further encouraged her, so after earning her associate degree at ASUMH, she applied for the UAMS program.

“I really enjoy the work,” she said. “Every patient is a new experience.”