How to Sustain Your Efforts
IOH Toolkit
Chapter 1. Introducing the IOH Toolkit
How to Sustain Your Efforts
Sustainability matters if you want to create lasting change. Without a sustainability plan, the programming you put in place and the outcomes you achieve could disappear over time. To make sure that doesn’t happen, you’ll need to think about how to sustain your changes, big and small, before they occur.
What makes a program sustainable?
A systems approach to change is the best way to develop a plan that sticks. This means you should embed your program into the existing systems at your institution, so it will have the support and resources needed to remain in place over time.
A systems approach dictates that you consider multiple factors when you develop new programming.
Strategic planning.
- How could oral health integration help your institution achieve its mission?
- What aspects of oral health integration support the vision put forth for your institution or your program?
- How might oral health integration support the objectives laid out in your institution’s current strategic plan?
Costs.
- What costs will you incur to meet your objectives? Consider faculty and staff time, materials, and use of classroom or clinical space.
- What no-cost resources are already at your disposal?
- Will you require additional employees? Part-time support? A graduate assistant?
- How will you fund your initiative? Can you secure institutional support such as discretionary funds from your department or college? What grant opportunities are available?
Environmental support.
- How much collaboration already occurs among health professions programs at your institution?
- Is IPE an established and valued aspect of educational programming?
- Does oral health already have a foothold in existing curricula?
- If not, how much resistance do you anticipate to its introduction?
Organizational capacity.
- What staff resources will be required to support the goals of your initiative?
- Will you require part-time support? Volunteers? Graduate assistants?
- What kind of administrative support do you have? Who will manage implementation?
Partnerships.
- Which partners must you engage, both internally and in the community?
- What roles do you anticipate for each of your partners?
- Do you have faculty champions already on board?
- Do you have established community partnerships on which to build?
Communication.
- How do you plan to communicate your message to faculty, students, and potential partners in the community?
- Do you have a website? Newsletter? Email distribution list?
- Do you have a social media plan?
- Who will manage communication?
Evaluation.
- How will you evaluate progress and outcomes for your program?
- What tools will you put in place to evaluate faculty, staff, students, and community partners?
- What metrics will you use to measure progress?
Adaptation.
- Do you have a plan for refining your program in response to evaluation outcomes?
- By what process and timeline will you review performance, review objectives, and update your plans?
The extent of your oral health integration efforts will determine which of these factors to consider. Change at the program or institutional level can be challenging and involve all of these considerations, while integrating oral health into a single course may only require the support of one or two faculty members and incur few if any costs.
Specific challenges to your plan will depend on:
- Size of your organization
- Available resources
- Faculty skill sets
- Organizational support
- Current level of oral health integration
Note: In some states, regulations regarding the placement of fluoride varnish may also complicate the implementation of certain activities in this toolkit.
How will the IOH Toolkit help you create a sustainable program?
This toolkit devotes three chapters to issues directly related to sustainability.
These chapters will walk you through the steps of preparing your institution for a long-term commitment to oral health integration.
In addition, the toolkit’s curriculum-focused chapters employ teaching strategies that have been tested, implemented, and evaluated to provide a strong foundation on which to build a sustainable oral health integration effort. Evaluation results show each strategy achieves the intended lesson objectives and produces an overall increase in student knowledge, skills, and (where applicable) attitudes.
To ensure effective programming at your institution, you should continue the evaluation process. Encourage all faculty to seek feedback from students and colleagues to determine if modifications are necessary based on the needs at your institution.
Forms for evaluating programming are included in the appropriate chapters of this toolkit.
First Published: 10/2015
Last updated: 03/2016