Examine Current Curricula
IOH Toolkit
Chapter 2. Are You Ready?
Examine Current Curricula
Before you can implement curriculum changes that integrate oral health, you’ll need to determine what, how, and where oral health is already being taught at your institution. The depth of your survey will depend on the level of change you hope to implement and the level of institutional support you have.
Consider scope. Decide which courses or program(s) you will analyze (i.e. nursing, speech-language pathology and audiology, physical therapy).
Recruit partners. Partner with faculty from these programs to collaborate on curriculum analysis.
Conduct your survey. Distribute a Curricular Mapping Template to all program directors or select faculty members, depending on the scope of your effort. The IOH template and sample cover letter may be modified for use at your institution. Review the surveys to create a baseline understanding of the current status of oral health integration in each targeted course or program.
Collaborate. Where possible, work with your partners to conduct a more extensive review of every course in the selected programs and determine what, if any, oral health topics are presently being taught. To accomplish this:
- Examine course syllabi.
- Consult with faculty members who teach the courses you are investigating.
- Look at course topics and materials to uncover hidden oral health curricula.
IOH at Northeastern University (NEU)
IOH undertook the curriculum mapping process as part of its broader effort to demonstrate how a single, interprofessional, oral health curriculum could be implemented across multiple health professions programs.
To begin, the IOH program director sat down with each program coordinator and reviewed every course in each of the targeted health professions’ programs. These reviews identified specific faculty who taught courses appropriate for oral health integration. The IOH program director then met with each of these faculty members to look at course content and determine ways to integrate oral health into their courses. While building relationships and assessing course content in detail, these one-on-one meetings also served as opportunities to introduce Smiles for Life to faculty and show them how to use it with their students and for their own professional development.
During the second year of the project, a personalized letter was sent to faculty who hadn’t yet integrated oral health into their courses to explain how this might be done and how Smiles for Life could be used. In addition, faculty were provided with course specific oral health resources.
First Published: 11/2015
Last updated: 03/2016