Courtesy Photo | SAN DIEGO (Feb. 17, 2017) Leaders, instructors and students with the final class in...... read more read more
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SAN DIEGO – Four hospital corpsmen graduated as part of the Navy’s final Advanced Dental Assistant Program (ADAP) class during a ceremony at the Surface Warfare Medicine Institute (SWMI) in San Diego, Feb. 17.
Prior to the disestablishment of this 21-week program, it gave the graduates the Navy Enlisted Code (NEC) 8702 and an extremely in-depth knowledge of dental management and tooth restoration which allowed for increased productivity for dentists.
Founded in 2006, the ADAP was located at SWMI in San Diego where students received 840 hours of instruction in operative dentistry, prosthodontics, radiology techniques, advanced dental hygiene, and record keeping. The program was designed to not only set graduates up for successful roles in various dentistry settings but also leadership roles in clinical and healthcare administration areas.
“Being an expanded function dental tech allows multi-chair operations,” said Hospitalman Eliseo Trevino, the final class’ honor graduate. “This means more patients can be seen at once and increases, or even better, it enhances a dental clinics productivity and quality of care while it takes some of the work off the dental officer and a dental hygienist.”
After some extensive work by Navy Medicine Education, Training and Logistics Command (NMETLC) and selected subject matter experts (SME) throughout the country, a revised curriculum was established to streamline the Navy dental assistants’ training. This was done by putting all the necessary information and experiences necessary to produce the best dental assistants possible into the program awarding the 8701 NEC (Dental Assistant) at the joint-service Medical Education and Training Campus (METC) on board Joint Base San Antonio – Fort Sam Houston, Texas.
The working groups made up of personnel from NMETLC and the other SMEs spent countless hours reviewing the curriculum in the 8701 and 8702 communities in order to ensure the optimum training experience for dental assistants that will benefit their professional careers and the Navy as a whole.
“We were tasked with reviewing each area of Basic Dental Assisting and Expanded Functions and delete and add tasks,” said Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Cari Lytle, an SME who was chosen to represent Naval Medical Center Portsmouth, Va. “We spent five days straight in a classroom for eight hours each day reviewing curriculum line by line. Then a few weeks following the end of the joint duty task analysis, we were assigned specific spreadsheets to review. I’d say I dedicated at least 30 hours completing multiple areas on that.”
Other than the obvious financial benefits of having all of the Navy’s dental assistants receiving their training under one roof at METC, some anticipated benefits of this change are more skilled dental assistants and Sailors who will be more competitive after separation.
“I feel this will benefit the Navy and its personnel because dental technicians will now be more universal and more skilled,” said Lytle. “It will also help the personnel by allowing them to be more competitive with their civilian counterparts.”
Despite the benefits, those who are graduating with the last ADAP class are a little sad to see the accelerated advanced dental program go.
“I feel amazing, even accomplished, and somewhat sad to be part of the last class to graduate from this program,” said Trevino. “For me I used this class as a reassurance, or a stepping stone, toward an ultimate goal of being a dental officer. Having learned and earned the credits towards my goal, this program has reassured me that I love dentistry. I was even able to obtain a national board certification through this program.”
NMETLC manages Navy Medicine's logistics, and enlisted and officer education and training programs, supporting personnel who deploy worldwide. NMETLC is part of the Navy Medicine team, a global health care network of Navy medical professionals around the world who provide high-quality health care to eligible beneficiaries. Navy Medicine personnel deploy with Sailors and Marines worldwide, providing critical mission support on the sea aboard ships, in the air, under the sea and on the battlefield.
| Date Taken: | 02.17.2017 |
| Date Posted: | 02.21.2017 14:54 |
| Story ID: | 224200 |
| Location: | SAN DIEGO, CA, US |
| Web Views: | 496 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
This work, Final Navy Advanced Dental Assistant Program Class Graduates, by CPO Jacquelyn Childs, identified by DVIDS, must comply with the restrictions shown on https://www.dvidshub.net/about/copyright.
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