[NST club activity] Oral care training experience

-Three faculties and departments collaborate to provide students with a professional perspective-

On October 13th, the NST Club, which is active at our university, conducted an oral care training session. This was the first activity for the NST Club since it was established in June and promoted to a "club" in October.

This time, we invited Lecturer Yukiko Sakamoto from the Department of Dental Hygiene at Otemae College College, which trains Department of Oral Health Sciences, to give a lecture and practical training on the importance of oral care. Lecturer Sakamoto has experience as a dental hygienist and as a member of an NST (nutrition support team), and her lecture, which included stories of her own experiences in the field, was a very interesting learning experience for the students.

During the practical training, students from Faculty of Health and Nutrition, Faculty of Global Nursing, and Department of Oral Health Sciences were organized into mixed groups, taking turns playing the three roles of "operator," "patient," and "assistant." They learned oral care techniques and their importance firsthand. The students, who were performing oral care for the first time, were nervous but took the practical training, which was based on a hospital setting, including how to use a brush and how to angle the face to prevent accidental ingestion, seriously.

Akane Fujiwara, a third-year student in Faculty of Health and Nutrition representative of the NST Club, said, "We learned about toothbrushes, caries prevention, and the importance of oral care, which we don't learn in class, and then students actually brushed their teeth and cleaned their oral mucosa. It was my first time, so it was difficult, but with advice from Professor Sakamoto and members of Department of Oral Health Sciences, I was able to do the practical training while keeping in mind the key points of encouraging students and brushing. When supporting patients as a registered dietitian, I think there will be times when I work together with dentists and dental hygienists. This was a valuable experience that made me realize once again how important it is to deepen my knowledge of dentistry, not just in terms of nutrition, but also to improve patients' quality of life and support their eating."

This internship was an extremely valuable initiative in which two university faculties (Faculty of Health and Nutrition and Faculty of Global Nursing) and one junior college department (Department of Oral Health Sciences) collaborated within the school, allowing students to learn from each other while making use of their respective expertise. It is hoped that this interdisciplinary learning opportunity will be put to good use in future collaboration in team medical care settings.
Going forward, the NST Club plans to continue to actively develop learning opportunities on the theme of interprofessional collaboration.

(Source: Student Affairs Division)