The Impact of Informal Caregiving on Dental School Faculty

Includes a Live Web Event on 01/22/2025 at 12:00 PM (EST)

This webinar addresses the shortage of dental faculty in many schools, a problem often driven by factors such as workload, compensation and burnout. To maintain a high-quality educational experience for students, clinical care for patients and the retain faculty, it is essential for institutional administration to examine the root causes of burnout that may lead to faculty leaving academia. One key area that may be overlooked is the impact of informal caregiving responsibilities on faculty well-being.

Dental faculty represent a diverse population with varying family dynamics, leading to different levels of informal caregiving duties. These responsibilities can significantly contribute to burnout and may influence a faculty member’s decision to remain in or exit academia. This webinar seeks to investigate the potential correlation among informal caregiving, faculty well-being, job satisfaction and career commitment, providing a data-driven understanding of this relationship. It will also evaluate current institutional policies and available resources that support faculty who are informal caregivers. Moreover, the webinar will assess faculty awareness of these resources. By identifying gaps in institutional support, this webinar aims to offer recommendations for enhancing work-life balance and mitigating faculty burnout.

Learning Objectives:

Define informal caregiving, describe trends and recognize the populations and activities involved in providing unpaid care.
Describe how informal caregiving responsibilities impact the well-being, professional experiences and job-related attitudes of dental faculty.
Explore the demands placed on informal caregivers and how these challenges may intersect with their roles as dental educators.
Compare and contrast the experiences of faculty who engage in informal caregiving with those who do not, fostering a broader understanding of the well-being of diverse faculty.
Propose strategies and recommendations for institutional administration to better support dental faculty who have informal caregiving responsibilities, enhancing their work-life balance and reducing burnout.

Original Release Date: Jan. 22, 2025

Expiration Date: Jan. 22, 2028

Questions? Contact learn@adea.org

Disclaimer

The purpose of this presentation is to educate and to inform. This is not a substitute for professional care and is not intended for use for the diagnosis or treatment of individual conditions. Guests on this presentation express their own experience, opinions and conclusions. Guest statements do not express the viewpoint of ADEA. The mention of any product, service, organization, activity or therapy should not be construed as an ADEA endorsement.

CE Information

The American Dental Education Association is an ADA CERP Recognized Provider.

An evaluation form is available to participants after the conclusion of the live webinar. To earn continuing education (CE) credit for participation in the webinar, the online evaluation must be completed in full by Jan. 22, 2028. After completing the evaluation, webinar participants can print and save the CE Verification Form.

ADA CERP is a service of the American Dental Association to assist dental professionals in identifying quality providers of continuing dental education. ADA CERP does not approve or endorse individual courses or instructors, nor does it imply acceptance of credit hours by boards of dentistry.

The American Dental Education Association designates this activity for 1.0 continuing education credit.

All speakers agree that neither they nor members of their immediate family have any financial relationships with commercial entities that may be relevant to their presentation.

Sarah G. Lowman, D.D.S., M.P.H.

Associate Dean for Admissions, Recruitment and Engagement

University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry

Dr. Sarah Lowman is the Associate Dean for Admissions, Recruitment, & Engagement at the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry. She earned a DDS and MPH from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and completed the Dental Public Health Residency Program at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Lowman joined the UNMC faculty in 2020. She directs three courses, including an introduction to geriatrics for dental and dental hygiene students. She serves as the Principal Investigator for multiple projects that aim to strengthen the dental workforce and increase access to care for underserved populations. Prior to joining the UNMC faculty, she held an adjunct appointment at the UNC Adams School of Dentistry and managed research teams in the Duke Department of Medicine and the UNC Center for Aging and Health. Dr. Lowman earned a BA in art history from Vassar College.

Speaker agrees that neither they nor members of their immediate family have any financial relationships with commercial entities that may be relevant to their presentation.

Hanann Tomeh, D.D.S., M.P.H.

Comprehensive Care Unit Director

A.T. Still University

Hanann Tomeh is a Clinical Associate Professor and supervises oral healthcare in one of the four main comprehensive care units at ASDOH. As a comprehensive care unit director she mentors one quarter of the D2 - D4 students. She also serves as the Faculty Development Director improving faculty growth opportunities at ASDOH including a more robust CE program. She completed EBD training through the ADA and has been involved in EBD seminars around the country and is lead instructor of the Evidence-based Dentistry module at ASDOH and has been improving the student learning experience since 2017. She is passionate about EBD and using evidence to inform good clinical decisions for patients and has completed four years of service in the ADEA EBD SIG/Section in March 2023 from Secretary to Chair (served twice as chair). Her research interests include student motivation in learning, student perception of faculty and its effect on learning and clinical outcomes, and patient education. She now serves as Chair-elect of the Educational Research and Curriculum Development Section. She was previously highly involved in pre-clinical simulation instruction and curriculum at ASDOH. She was awarded a university scholarship at AT Still to pursue an MPH which she obtained in 2020. She has enjoyed tremendous growth and personal exchange with vibrant ADEA Leadership Fellows from around the country.

Speaker agrees that neither they nor members of their immediate family have any financial relationships with commercial entities that may be relevant to their presentation.