A model for integrating student and faculty research

Research productivity is a major criterion for measuring academic performance in most universities today. Because of heavy teaching loads, dental hygiene faculty often have difficulty allocating adequate time to conduct research. Thus, professional advancement might be impeded since faculty may be less productive in the research area than is desired by the academic unit. A method that might assist dental hygiene faculty to become more research productive focuses on student involvement with faculty on collaborative research projects. The purpose of this article is to describe a model designed to enhance the integration of faculty and student research in dental hygiene and to explain the benefits inherent in dental hygiene student involvement with faculty on collaborative research projects.