The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
My project with Dr. Xenoudi is to figure out the effect of personalities of students and clinic coaches and their group dynamics in the pre-doctoral coaching group setting. The MBTI was performed by both students and coaches with an additional survey which asks how they are doing in the clinic. Results from MBTI were statistically analyzed and survey questions were reviewed to see if there are relevances and whether both parties are experiencing positive or negative relationship.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
I am Archnaa Rajasekaran, final year international dental student and a proud ADEA-ADCFP fellow. My research project aims to identify how effectively treatment planning is done on AxiUm (electronic health record) by the third and fourth year (including IDPs) students of UCSF during an academic year. I am being calibrated to evaluate the treatment plans prepared by students, which has been a great learning experience.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
I am Mariam Abadir a fourth year student in International dental program. My research project as a fellow of ADCFP is about international dentists that enter U.S. dental schools with diverse dental experiences. I have created a survey that has been distributed to former students of the international dental programs of both third and forth years of UCSF and UOP. Our goal of this research is to create a common language between educators and students, that is by having a basic base of understanding of international students’ expectations and their level of expertise to maximize their beneficial educational journey at U.S dental Schools.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
The UCSF School of Dentistry currently uses E-value for D3/4s in their clinical years to provide general praise or critique for faculty members. In this one-sided interaction, faculty members do not have a way to respond or get more information, unless a personal relationship was built to the point where a student felt comfortable enough to provide face-to-face critique to the teacher. Even then, due to the individual nature of such a rare discussion, there remains loss learning/teaching opportunities for other students, and even other faculty members, who were not participants in the discussion. The main goal of this project is to create a teaching tool in which D3/4 students can anonymously report the student perspective, both positive or negative, on specific interactions and incidences with faculty members. Once enough feedback has been received, a PowerPoint presentation will be used to share the cases with a panel of clinical faculty. All discussion or responses from the faculty will be noted, and “clinical teaching pearls” can be generated that can help improve their pedagogical skills.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
Dentistry is a complex field consisting of many career options, oral health-related topics, and specialties. Unfortunately, many pre-dental students are unaware of the breadth of the field, what it entails, and the options they have, while other undergraduate students do not have the resources to learn more about or consider the field at all. The goal of this project is to assess whether actively reaching out to pre-dental/pre-health students in their own communities and providing information on a broad range of topics within the dental field will encourage them to consider a career in dentistry, dental research, or dental academia. It will evaluate matriculating students’ preparedness and the need for structured informational programs and resources, potentially impacting future pipeline programs and recruitment.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
Increasing Value Care in the Pre-doctoral Clinic:
In exploration of a complete dental education experience, the pre-doctoral clinic is a major aspect of student development into future clinicians. Across the country, our students and faculty work together to provide the best care possible while learning procedures, patient management and administrative processing. While the student clinic is a laboratory for learning, it is also a business that produces a product in exchange for compensation from patients and insurers. With this in mind I am working through a retrospective chart audit from the pre-doctoral clinic to evaluate production per chair and number of visits for specific procedures in hopes to develop a further study on improving value and outcomes for the patients and the dental center.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
Dental schools nationwide are striving to increase student diversity to help better serve our population. Schools have improved in recruiting minority students, but after admission these students’ needs and programs can be forgotten. More attention should be directed into mentorship opportunities for minority students. To do this I will be conducting a qualitative research experiment to understand the experience of underrepresented minorities (URM) at non Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) to understand if URM students feel that they receive a sufficient support system after being accepted into dental school.
On top of the typical didactic and preclinical courses we’re taking throughout the year, 22 UCSF students and I are working toward a larger goal: bettering the UCSF School of Dentistry as ADCFP fellows. The ADCFP (Academic Dental Careers Fellowship Program) is an opportunity for motivated, research- and education-minded students to work with a faculty mentor on a project geared toward improving dental education. My project, for example, is to implement waste reduction and waste management systems in our dental clinics and simulation labs and eventually to incorporate sustainability education into current practice and curriculum.
With a cohort capped at 22 students, UCSF’s 2018-2019 ADCFP class boasts projects with a wide diversity of topics, including depression and wellness among California dental students, the accuracy of UCSF student treatment phasing, assessment of nitrous oxide sedation curriculum, and improvement of the relevance of biomaterials courses. The ADCFP program as a whole is designed by national ADEA and has a number of requirements that help students learn about academic careers, including mandatory faculty interviews and teaching activities.
UCSF ADEA ADCFP 2018-2019 Cohort
ADEA Education Chair board members have the responsibility of organizing monthly meetings for ADCFP fellows. Here at UCSF, our November meeting featured a fun Jeopardy game with facts and stories from five of our clinical coaches! Dr. Diana Nguyen (DDS) reflected on a humorous incident when a patient inquired about her performing breast implants. Dr. Kurt Schroeder (DDS) shed light on his decision to go back to specialize in endodontics after 12 years of general dentistry. And Dr. Ram Vaderhobli (BDS, MS) shared some powerful advice: be thankful for the opportunity of learning and growth that each patient offers, which will help you become a better healthcare professional.
On a more exciting note, 11 members of our cohort will attend the ADEA Annual Session this March in Chicago, IL. There, fellows will participate in a poster session presenting their projects to dental students, faculty, and educators from around the nation. In particular, I am looking forward to the poster session as an opportunity to share my project on sustainability and inspire students and faculty from other schools to look into ways to improve their own sustainability. At this conference, we will also have the opportunity to attend three full days of plenary sessions, speakers, and workshops all about improving the field of dental education. It will be a wonderful weekend of student networking, bonding, and learning all made possible by ADEA, ADCFP, and UCSF!
The UCSF ADCFP programming is overseen by faculty advisor Dr. Wilson Hsin and run by ADEA Education and Jr. Education Chairs Auvi Tran (auvi.tran@ucsf.edu) and Claire Skach (claire.skach@ucsf.edu). Please contact either Education Chair if you’d like to hear more information about UCSF’s program!
Posters used in my ADCFP project on sustainability
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
Nitrous oxide (N2O/O2) sedation is commonly used in dentistry to reduce anxiety and dental fears in both pediatric and adult patients. When properly used, it serves as an effective adjunct to local anesthesia. The goal of our project is to survey US dental students on N2O/O2 sedation training curriculum at their respective dental programs. We hope to elucidate how training curriculum differs among dental programs, with the overarching goal of standardizing N2O/O2 sedation training across the US.
The Academic Careers Fellowship Program (ADCFP) provides dental students at UCSF the opportunity to explore academia through faculty mentorship and research- or education-based projects. Read what some of our students are working on below:
Throughout the first and second years, UCSF dental students are required to assist as part of their PCC course requirements. However, students often get confused with which procedures they should assist with and how they can assist to the best of their ability, leaving the clinic feeling overwhelmed and perplexed. The goal of our project is to improve the assisting experience by maximizing the learning potential. Our project creates guidelines for dental procedures so that assistants know what to look for and how they can help. These guides will not only serve to streamline the assisting session for the underclassmen, but also ensures that the assistant fully understands the procedure holistically, and yields opportunity for any unclear steps to be elucidated. This project will serve to bridge the gap between pre-clinical and clinical education at UCSF.
