Miniresidency in Nursing Home and
Long-Term Care for the Dental Team

Core Competency Credit Course

Wednesday-Saturday, April 30-May 3, 2008

A special opportunity to learn about many different aspects of nursing home care, other long-term care environments, as well as geriatric dental care considerations.

The oral health care of nursing home residents continues to be a major concern in light of public expectations and government regulations setting higher standards for care in U.S. nursing homes. The care of those in assisted living, adult daycare and other alternative long-term environments also poses special challenges for the dental team. This unique continuing dental education program is specifically designed to teach dentists, dental hygienists, and dental assistants how to deliver care more effectively in nursing homes and other long-term care environments. The miniresidency was developed and is directed by faculty from the University of Minnesota's Oral Health Services for Older Adults Program, winner of the American Dental Association Geriatric Oral Health Care Award.

Numerous dental professionals from across the US and Canada have now taken this popular continuing dental education course which consists of four days of faculty seminars, guest presentations, site visits and hands-on training. You may now also choose to receive additional supervised clinical training during the recently developed "Clinical Practicum in Geriatrics and Long-Term Care."

University experts in geriatric dental care will team up with their colleagues in geriatric medicine, nursing, and other disciplines to address the following topics:

Day One

Morning--Overview, current trends in long-term care, including nursing homes and other long-term care environments; basic ingredients for long-term care dental programs; review of nursing home regulations and required Minimum Data Set (MDS) oral health assessments.

Afternoon--Tour Wilder Senior Dental Program dental clinic; demonstration and practice of effective wheelchair transfers with rehabilitation therapist; estimating utilization for nursing home dental programs; developing nursing home contracts; understanding reimbursement issues.

Day Two

Morning--Nursing home organization and the roles of key staff: administrators, nursing directors, and nursing staff; dental delivery system options: planning fixed clinic installations, including physical plant considerations and equipment selection; discussion of mobile and portable care delivery system options.

Afternoon--Dental program implementation in a variety of settings, including guided tours of primary and satellite nursing home dental clinics and equipment demonstrations; social services support for the elderly in community and long-term care settings.

Day Three

Morning--Systems and strategies to enhance communications in long-term care settings; documentation systems; how to write effective nursing home orders; preventive oral health care, including preventive treatment planning and procedures; nursing in-service education program planning and materials; quality assurance and program evaluation.

Afternoon--Discussion of common medical management issues, including Alzheimer's disease, depression, and other selected disorders; meet with Medical Director/Geriatrician and discuss medical management issues using illustrated clinical cases.

Day Four

Morning--Update on common medical-dental management concerns, including medical risk assessment, antibiotic prophylaxis for cardiovascular problems and prosthetic joints, management of patients on anticoagulants, behavior management; infectious disease and infection control issues; oral effects of medications; patient management strategies for older adults, including communication tips, environmental factors, managing cognitively impaired patients, taking radiographs, and other clinical tips.

Afternoon--Coping with common ethical and legal issues (assessing decision-making capacity, informed consent, interpretation of advance directives, such as Do Not Resuscitate/Do Not Intubate orders); discuss dental treatment planning and management issues using illustrated clinical cases; further resources and references for geriatric dentistry and long-term care.

This course is under the direction of Stephen K. Shuman, DDS, MS, Associate Professor and Director, Oral Health Services for Older Adults Program, Department of Primary Dental Care, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry; Dental Director, Wilder Senior Dental Program, Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, St. Paul, MN.

This course is provided in cooperation with the Amherst H. Wilder Foundation, St. Paul, Minnesota.