Immersed in an interprofessional care environment, dental and nursing students are working together to provide dental and medical care in Flint.

The University of Michigan School of Dentistry has a long-established history of providing oral health care to residents across Michigan through its Community-Based Dental Education (CBDE) program which sends dental and dental hygiene students to 26 sites in 24 cities and towns across Michigan.

One of the sites is the Hamilton Community Health Network facility in Flint, Michigan.

The school’s outreach efforts are playing an important part in the University of Michigan’s interprofessional education (IPE) initiative. The School of Dentistry and the School of Nursing are working together and sending their students to Flint to provide dental and medical care to area residents.  Leading that effort are Drs. Howard Hamerink and Mark Fitzgerald.

“This is the first true interprofessional care clinical immersion experience where actually treating patients is the focus,” says Hamerink.  “From this experience, we hope to learn how we should train future students in an interprofessional care environment for what they will experience in the future.”

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