Proposal for dementia-related curriculum development for dental hygiene degree programs in Korea

다국어 초록 (Multilingual Abstract)

Objectives: The objective of this study was to examine the current state of dementia-related education for dental hygiene degree programs in Korea, as well as to develop a dementia-related curriculum for dental hygiene programs suitable for the social characteristics of Korea. Methods: The study was conducted between April and November 2018. First, the current state of dementia-related education for dental hygiene programs in colleges throughout Korea and dementia-related education for other health care-related fields were investigated. Based on the initial findings, the basic content of the preliminary curriculum was constructed. Second, based on the opinion of the dementia-related curriculum development committee comprising 10 professors of dental hygiene, the operations of dementia-related courses and relevant details were constructed. Third, these operations and relevant details were assessed and revised based on focus-group interviews. Fourth, the dementia-related curriculum was developed based on the study findings and literature review. Results: The name of the course in the developed curriculum was set as "Elderly Dental Hygiene and Practicum." The course was established as a "major elective," and was offered as two units with two instructional sessions of two hours each. The learning goal for this course was acquiring the methods for understanding and managing the characteristics of the elderly. A consensus was reached regarding conducting the theoretical and practical lessons on some of the dementia-related content. The dementia-related curriculum comprised 10 "required contents" which is to be conducted over three weeks of theoretical lessons and two weeks of practical lessons. Conclusions: With the growing elderly population, the development and operation of the curriculum for geriatric oral health interventions are warranted in dental hygiene education. However, continued discussions and improvements are needed on the extent of educational content, considering various dementia-related symptoms and general geriatric systemic diseases.