Improving Dental Hygiene Students' Journal Writing

During the introductory semester of treating patients, students are in need of assistance and guidance throughout the assessment and treatment phases of patient care. As novice learners, there is little to no prior knowledge on writing a patient case study presentation. To assist and improve dental hygiene student writing of patient case journals, a scaffold assignment was created. Over the course of the semester students were required to submit five patient case studies in the form of a journal. Each journal had a writing focus with specific directions for each along with a detailed rubric; the final journal encompassing all writing foci. Students communicated with their clinic advisor via Blackboard and a continuous dialogue occurred with responses to questions and constructive feedback. The goal of this assignment was to improve writing skills and critical thinking skills of the student dental hygienist.