NYU dental school gets $1.7M HRSA training grant

The New York University College of Dentistry (NYUCD) has received a five-year, $1.7 million training grant from the Health Resources and Service Administration (HRSA).

The five-year grant seeks to address the insufficient workforce for vulnerable and underserved pediatric populations. To meet this goal, the funds will be used to enhance the curriculum for 1,156 dental students and 65 dental hygiene students annually through a series of initiatives. The grant is a collaboration between the NYUCD Office of Allied Health Programs and the departments of pediatric dentistry and epidemiology & health promotion.

“This grant will enhance our ability to train students to care for underserved children both here in New York City and, once these students enter practice, throughout the world,” stated Amr Moursi, DDS, PhD, chairman of the NYUCD Department of Pediatric Dentistry, in a press release.

The proposed objectives with related activities include the following:

1. Enhanced pediatric dental curriculum: NYUCD will create and deliver a novel Blended Learning pediatric dental curriculum for dental and hygiene students focusing on exposing trainees to vulnerable pediatric populations, and novel approaches used to improve oral health and access to services.
2. Enhanced pediatric clinical training: NYUCD dental and hygiene students will participate in community-based clinical experiences with training in intraoral imaging, teledentistry, and interprofessional approaches to health services through collaborative learning.
3. Student Leadership Development: Dental and hygiene student leaders will participate in extramural faculty-mentored underrepresented minority recruitment and student leadership activities that include leadership training events, online certificate granting coursework in public health, an interprofessional clerkship, and student-led community projects.

The HRSA announced that it awarded more than $94 million in grants to strengthen the U.S. healthcare workforce. The grants support education and training to improve healthcare delivery and improve access to care. They were awarded through 11 different programs, including a total of $14.5 million to the postdoctoral training in general, pediatric, and public health dentistry and dental hygiene program.