Mentoring: From the trenches

Summer 2008

Career | Be a Mentor

From the trenches

Opinions on dental hygiene education from the students and teachers in the classroom.

by Carol Bommhardt

Modern Hygienist recently had the opportunity to interview program directors from Kennedy-King College and the College of Lake County’s Dental Hygiene programs; two reputable programs located in Illinois on the south side of Chicago and the northern suburbs, respectively. By combining a shared passion for education and dental hygiene, these women are making a difference in the lives of their students and communities. For full transcripts of the interviews click here.

kennedy-king college


	Fast Facts Name: Kennedy-King College Dental Hygiene Program Year established: 1996 Location: Chicago Number of faculty: 4 full-time, 22 part-time Number of students: 30 students in first year, 28 in second year Model students: Jennifer Alvarez, Kia Garrett, Rachel Sandrik and Anthony Nguyen, pictured with Program Director Shirley Beaver, RDH, PhD

Shirley Beaver, RDH, PhD, is the program director of Kennedy-King’s ADA-certified dental hygiene program, which provides students training in educational, clinical, and therapeutic services, preparing them for work in the preventive oral healthcare industry as dental hygienists.

MH: What aspects of the program at Kennedy-King are you most proud of?

Shirley Beaver: The diversity of the program; we have a very diverse program in terms of first-generation international students and underrepresented minorities. I believe our program effectively mirrors the ethnic makeup of the City of Chicago. We also have students as young as 19 and as old as 54 , and for a few years, we had a couple of males in each class. I’m also proud of the unique partnership between Kennedy-King College and the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Dentistry. The students have the best of a community college and professional university dental school collaboration.

MH: The relationship between hygienist and dentist is an important factor in career satisfaction. Tell us more about how you work with UIC.

SB: We have a great opportunity at UIC because we don’t have a separate dental hygiene clinic. There, we have six clinics—each has five hygiene students, along with 2nd-, 3rd- and 4th-year dental students. Each dental hygiene student is assigned to a group of dental students and they provide care to the patients in collaboration. Also, there are general practice dentists, periodontists and other specialty dental faculty members who teach the dental hygiene students in the clinical setting.

MH: What do you think are some of the main challenges facing dental hygienists in the next 5 to 10 years, and how is your program working to prepare students accordingly?

SB: First, availability of full-time positions with benefits. Many areas of the country are oversaturated with dental hygienists. Second, but of greatest significance, is determining what the role of the dental hygienist is really going to be in the overall picture of access to oral healthcare. A third challenge is the need to move entry-level dental hygiene to a bachelor’s degree level to effectively teach all of the information that’s available in a rapidly changing healthcare environment; we’re working to establish an online bachelor’s degree completion program. Moving into a bachelor’s program is the way to ensure that students have enough time to acquire the skills of the future.

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