ADHA has been fighting on-the-job training initiatives for more than a dozen years now. From the first major threat to dental hygiene education requirements, which was successfully defeated in Georgia in 1990 to the battle over the delegation of supra-gingival scaling to dental assistants last year in Kansas, ADHA--along with state dental hygienist associations and individual dental hygienists--has been fighting to keep organized dentistry from reducing dental hygiene education standards and making on-the-job training a reality.

ADHA is concerned about actions adopted by the American Dental Association over the past few years--actions ADHA believes are part of a systematic plan to undermine the RDH credential. This prompted ADHA last year to develop a special task force to develop strategies to help state dental hygienist associations meet legislative, leadership, and public awareness challenges, especially as they relate to actions taken by organized dentistry. We asked each state dental hygienist organization to designate a four-person team to work with the task force, and dubbed this group the LPS Strategy Network. LPS stands for Licensed Prevention Specialists.

Here are some of the actions ADHA and the task force have taken to deal with this serious threat to public health and to the dental hygiene profession.

• Increased Publication Coverage--to make sure both members and potential members are fully informed about the challenges to the dental hygiene profession and the health of the public, we have increased our coverage of ADA, on-the-job training, and education standards in Access, Information Network, other ADHA publications, and the association’s Web site. For example, we devoted the cover story in the January 1999 issue of Access to the ADA resolutions and regularly post information about preceptorship and education issues on our Web site.
  
  
• Issues Piece--ADHA developed and continues to distribute an easy-to-understand information piece called “The Future of Oral Health,” that addresses key issues such as on-the-job training, self-regulation, legislation, and managed care. The piece is written in down-to-earth consumer terms and is suitable for distribution to consumers, reporters, and legislators. A free quantity of the piece was distributed to each state through the LPS Network.
  
  
• Public Relations Support--Provided each LPS state representative with information on how to set up a public relations program to keep the public informed about preceptorship and education issues and to establish a relationship in advance in the event of initiatives by state dental societies.
  
  
• Integration with National P.R. Program--Integrated preceptorship response strategies into our ongoing public relations program.
  
  
• Quality of Education Statement--Issued a statement about the importance of dental hygiene education, via a press release about the ADA resolutions.
  
  
• Media Training for State Officers--Conducted a media training session at the Constituent Officers’ Workshop to help state associations disseminate consistent key messages.
  
  
• Membership Recruitment--Refocused a budgeted membership recruitment campaign to address preceptorship.
  
  
• Media Coverage--Devoted an issue of “Brush Up,” our newsletter for reporters, to preceptorship and related issues. Copies were distributed to LPS state representatives.
  
  
• Consumer Support--Developed comprehensive talking points and a consumer piece for use when talking to the media or public about issues related to preceptorship.
  
  
• Mat Column--Issued a mat column (camera-ready newspaper article) about on-the-job training and the importance of maintaining education standards to 10,000 newspapers. Copies also were sent to LPS state representatives for distribution to local reporters.
  
  
• District Trustees--The ADHA board of trustees voted to utilize district trustees to promote P.R. efforts on preceptorship and education issues.
  
  
• Joint Commission Actions--Sent a letter from the ADHA president to the members of the Joint Commission expressing dental hygiene’s concern over a recent change in eligibility requirements that could allow dental assistants who have not graduated from an accredited dental hygiene program to sit for the national dental hygiene exam. Also sent letters to other health associations asking for their help opposing the Joint Commissions actions.
  
  
• ADA Correspondence--Sent a letter from the ADHA president to the American Dental Association going on the record in opposition to actions adopted by the ADA House of Delegates.
  
  
• Press Release--Issued a press release warning consumers about the potential dangers posed by the Joint Commission’s recent actions.
  
  
• Letter-Writing Campaign--Sent a memo from ADHA’s president and executive director to dental hygiene program directors urging them to initiate a letter-writing campaign among faculty, students, and the administration, voicing opposition to the Joint Commission’s recent actions.

ADHA will continue to fight initiatives to establish on-the-job training programs or reduce dental hygiene education standards because there is too much at stake to do otherwise. Protecting public safety and the integrity of the RDH credential is a critical concern to ADHA and the dental hygiene profession.