SCOPE: Community Health Service at Pacific

Authors

Christine Tsang, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of DentistryFollow
Renee S. Greene, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of DentistryFollow
Emma Bhaskar, University of the Pacific, Arthur A. Dugoni School of DentistryFollow

Lead Author Affiliation

Doctor of Dental Surgery

Lead Author Program & Year

DDS Year 2

Presentation Category

Community Oral Health

Introduction/Context/Diagnosis

The Student Community Outreach for Public Education (SCOPE) program is UoP’s student-run service organization that aims to serve the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond by putting on educational and community health events. The SCOPE Officers lead community health projects and encourage the student body to actively participate and volunteer in events that serve the community and various underserved neighborhoods in the city. Our 2019-2020 goal was to increase collaboration and improve class participation to help our peers foster the “Heart” component of UoP’s “Head, Heart, and Hand” philosophy.

Methods/Treatment Plan

SCOPE Officers collaborate with various community leaders, health professionals, and non-profit organizations to put on events that provide necessary dental screenings and oral health education to various underserved communities in the area. These dental screenings also give us data on which areas are most affected by oral diseases, and SCOPE aims to focus their work in these neighborhoods such as Chinatown, the Tenderloin, and the Mission. SCOPE has been working to facilitate the process in which students and officers can retrieve information for community health events. Using Canvas, SCOPE Landings acted as a portal where officers can get the resources they need to lead a successful event. Event data can also be uploaded onto Canvas via the SCOPE Landings page. All UoP Dugoni students can also access SCOPE - AAPHD Community Health Resources, and through this link, students can access and find educational brochures and other community health resources. SCOPE collects data after each event including but not limited to: number of patients served, prevention bags handed out, number of volunteers, hours served, and overall class participation.

Results/Outcome

SCOPE worked with many different faculty members at 12 of our events. We’ve provided prevention education at 100% of events and dispensed information and prevention bags to over 2000 individuals in our community. We’ve hosted a majority of events in the city of San Francisco and 5 within Northern California.

The creation and pilot launch of Community Health Resources, a Canvas site, provides SCOPE Officers, volunteers and faculty with prevention and risk assessment patient resources and dental screening protocols. This on-line resource resulted in SCOPE Officers leaders, faculty and community health volunteers being able to “cross-train” and provide more successful events.

SCOPE Officers provided leadership, in approximately one dozen events, including multiple interdisciplinary projects, across the San Francisco Bay Area.

SCOPE Officers innovated, implemented and evaluated Community Oral Health Projects. Highlights of their accomplishments over the past year are: Provided Professional Development, Peer-Mentorship and Engagement of Student Volunteers ● Led approximately 20 SCOPE Officers ranging from the 2020-2022 DDS, IDS & DH Classes ● Lead one dozen projects/events ● Tripled the DDS Class of 2021 total volunteer hours ● Nearly doubled our graduating IDS & DDS Class of 2020 total volunteer hours

Total class participation for the DDS Class of 2020, IDS Class of 2020, and DDS class of 2021 summates to nearly: 1900 hours of Community Oral Health Projects & Services

Significance/Conclusions

Through these various initiatives, SCOPE Officers achieved professional growth by collaborating with various UoP organizations, successfully leading community health outreach events, and initiating new projects to enhance the community. Although our goal to increase collaboration and student participation were impacted by the pandemic, we remain optimistic that SCOPE officers will continue to explore new, creative opportunities to continue serving the San Francisco community. Going forward, we aim to adapt to the global impacts of COVID-19 by providing care through new methods such as teledentistry.

Comments/Acknowledgements

We are grateful for the help, generosity, and support received from Professor Christine Miller, Melissa Yamanaka, and Eric Bertumen, Jon Draper, and Dean Nader Nadershahi. References provided upon request.

Format

Event