Collaborative professional learning between dentistry and education students in delivering an oral health program to disadvantaged Queensland schools

Background: Poor oral health impacts adversely on educational outcomes and consequently life chances, particularly for socially disadvantaged Indigenous and low income families. This equity project involves intersectoral and interprofessional partnerships to embed an oral health focus into the work integrated experiences of undergraduate Dentistry and postgraduate Education students. In 2011, through shared learning sessions on campus and within classrooms, students have the opportunity to participate in real world experiences that will improve potentially oral health and educational outcomes in disadvantaged children.\ud \ud Methodology: Students will deliver an educationally sound, oral health program to school children with diverse cultural backgrounds and abilities. This program aims to enable strong, authentic, interprofessional collaboration and teamwork while engaging students in a community outreach program. Evaluation will employ mixed methodologies 1) Pre and post implementation surveys of students' perceptions of their capabilities, knowledges and attitudes 2) Peer evaluation 3) School teachers' ratings of individual student's performance. Preliminary findings are not available at the time of submission as the project commences in 2011