Introduction
Anthony Palatta, D.D.S., Ed.D., Chief Learning
Officer
Last month, the ADEA Joint
Council Administrative Boards held their annual meetings at the ADEA offices in
Washington, DC. While they were here, I peered into the conference room and was
greeted by an extraordinary scene: Everyone in the room sat, eyes closed,
shoulders relaxed, hands resting on their laps, in complete and utter silence.
As you may have guessed, they
were engaged in mindfulness—an appropriate activity for a meeting focused on resilience and mental health. Mindful
meditation and other practices that have been shown to reduce stress have
garnered a lot of attention lately. The U.S. Surgeon General has been preaching
the benefits of meditation as a stress reduction tool, and if you follow him on
Twitter, you know that academic settings are among the places he
has taken his message.
In this edition
of the ADEA CCI Liaison Ledger, we consider the ways in which meditation
and other stress management practices improve focus and academic performance—two
assets with enormous value for dental students. Our Campus Spotlight
takes us to the Dental
College of Georgia at Augusta University, where faculty are reducing student stress by preparing
them to receive corrective feedback. In our Educator
Spotlight, we meet an Assistant Dean whose affinity for mindful meditation
is shaping the experience of students at the University
of Kentucky College of Dentistry.
Our
commentator this month is Kathy O’Loughlin, D.M.D., Executive Director and Chief Operating Officer at
the American Dental Association. As she says in a Guest
Perspective that is both personal and passionate, “We cannot avoid stress and emotional distress,
but we can learn to manage it in a way that benefits our families, our
patients, our profession and ourselves.”
This issue
of the Ledger will give you a sense
of how your colleagues are doing just that. If you have a stress management
initiative in place on your campus, we want to hear about it. Please use the
comment fields that follow each article to share your activities with other
ADEA members.
Anthony
Palatta, D.D.S., Ed.D., ADEA Chief Learning Officer
Upcoming Events
2017 ADEA
Annual Session & Exhibition,
March 18–21, 2017, Long Beach, CA
Shaping the Future of Dental Education, May 8–9, 2017, London, England
2017 ADEA CCI Liaisons Summer Meeting, June 6–8, 2017, Baltimore, MD
Profiled Campuses
Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University
University of Kentucky College of
Dentistry
Stress Management Resources
American Dental Association’s Health
and Wellness Information
Alzahem
AM, van der Molen HT, Alaujan AH, Schmidt HG, Zamakhshary MH. Stress amongst
dental students: a systematic review. Eur J Dent Educ 2011;15(1):8-18.
Coffey
DS, Cuff P, Eliot K, Goldblatt E, Grus C, Kishore S, Mancini M, Valachovic R,
Walker PH. 2017. A multifaceted systems approach to addressing stress within
health professions education and beyond. National Academy of Medicine,
Washington, DC.
Elani
HW, Allison PJ, Kumar RA, Mancini L, Lambrou A, Bedos C. A systematic review of
stress in dental students. J Dent Educ 2014;78(2):226-42.
Ericsson
KA, Nandagopal K, Roring RW. Toward a science of exceptional achievement:
attaining superior performance through deliberate practice. Ann N Y Acad Sci
2009;1172:199-217.
Greeson
JM, Juberg MK, Maytan M, James K, Rogers H. A randomized controlled trial of
Koru: a mindfulness program for college students and other emerging adults. J Am Coll Health 2014;62(4):222-233.
Murphy
RJ, Gray SA, Sterling G, Reeves K, DuCette J. A comparative study of
professional student stress. J Dent Educ 2009;73(3):328-37.
Twenge
JM. Generational changes and their impact in the classroom: teaching Generation
Me. Med Educ 2009;43(5):398-405.
University of
Kentucky College of Dentistry mindfulness webpage
University
of Kentucky College of Dentistry. UK dental students becoming more mindful.
Tufts University School of
Dental Medicine. Exploring mind/body wellness.
RESOURCES
Open Courseware Resources
Presentations From the 2016
ADEA CCI Summer Meetings
Presentations From the 2015
ADEA CCI Summer Meetings
Presentations From the 2014
ADEA CCI Summer Meetings
Presentations From the 2013
ADEA CCI Summer Meetings
Presentations From the 2012 ADEA
CCI Summer Meetings
ADEA CCI White Papers in the Journal of Dental Education
Educational Sessions From the
2016 ADEA Annual Session & Exhibition
Educational Sessions From ADEA
Annual Sessions (2010–2015)