The cases you just completed may be very similar to situations you have come across in your own practice. There is such potential for pediatric nurse practititioners and pediatric dentists to learn from one another. PNPs truly understand the importance of establishing a dental home in the first year of life or when the first tooth erupts. It is very important for them to have a strong referral network, so that they can refer infants and particularly, children with special health care needs to pediatric dentists in their community that are skilled at caring for these populations. By enhancing your knowledge about this field, you can now know when, how and where to refer to pediatric nurse practititioners.

By building a referral base of pediatric nurse practitioners you can now:

• Cross refer patients
• Partner with each other for continuting education opportunities through professonal organizations
• Provide each other with inservices to professional associates and office staff

Collaboration at NYU

The following video highlights the collaboration between pediatric dental residents and pediatric nurse practitioner students at New York University College of Dentistry.

The collaborative program between pediatric dental residents and pediatric nurse practitioner trainees at NYU began in 2005. According to Jill Fernandez, “It was a really big paradigm shift in the way we do health education to combine nursing and dentistry." To get started they looked at the educational curriculum of both programs. The fit was natural with the common goal of training primary health care providers for children. A model was proposed to provide dental residents, dental students and nursing students with collaborative evidence-based practice experience so they can work together in providing this care for children. The trainees have the opportunity to teach and learn from one another, in terms of learning how to review an electronic health record, performing a through head and neck exam with a visual of the oral cavity, learning how to provide oral hygiene instruction and nutrition counseling with families, and applying fluoride varnish on the children examined.

In this video, you will be introduced to:

• Jill Fernandez RDH, MPH, Director of Global Pediatric Outreach and Prevention Programs, NYU College of Dentistry
• Sheena Singh DDS , Chief Pediatric Dental Resident, NYU College of Dentistry