Chapter 3. Create Awareness and Secure Support

Phase 3. Educate Colleagues and Students

Support for oral health integration hinges on your ability to educate potential collaborators. The more members of your community know about the value of oral health integration, the more they are likely to support it.

Host lunch-and-learns for faculty development. Lunch-and-learns do double duty. They turn an opportunity to learn about a designated topic into an informal social event that can build the network of support for your initiative.

Conduct interprofessional seminars. Interprofessional seminars can convene students and faculty from any and all health professions who want to learn about a topic of shared interest.

Tips for conducting successful educational events

Plan seminars that address broad topics and endeavors. Encourage faculty to take small steps such as assigning one oral health learning module, using a video during a class session, unfolding oral health in a case study, or adding one lecture on oral health.

Open interprofessional seminars to those outside your institution. Participation by members of other academic institutions, primary care and community-based practices, and professional organizations can foster interinstitutional collaboration.

Create seminars. Consider topics that feature local and global oral health equity issues to attract a more diverse group of attendees.

Brand your seminar series. If you plan to host more than one interprofessional seminar, branding the series will help you gain recognition and build a following.