Integrating oral healthcare in the undergraduate nursing curriculum: the IONIC project

Abstract

The global burden of oral disease affects 3.5 billion people worldwide, with caries and periodontal disease being particularly prevalent in Australia. This growing health challenge cannot be addressed by dental professionals alone. The World Health Organization’s Oral Health Action Plan (2023-2030) advocates for innovative workforce models and competency-based education to effectively address this issue. In response, the New South Wales Government in Australia has emphasised the importance of integrating oral health into undergraduate nursing programs. While such integration exists primarily in American nursing education, with limited examples in Australia, there remains a critical need for a structured educational program that equips Australian nursing students with essential oral healthcare knowledge and skills. This project aimed to develop, implement, and evaluate an oral healthcare educational intervention within an undergraduate nursing curriculum, using codesign principles and Mezirow’s Transformative Learning Theory as the theoretical framework. This pioneering Australian project has successfully developed and implemented an evidence-based oral healthcare intervention that demonstrably improves the attitudes and confidence of undergraduate nursing students. By employing transformative learning principles, the intervention has created meaningful educational outcomes. This research provides a blueprint for other educational institutions seeking to integrate oral healthcare into undergraduate nursing curricula, thereby addressing a critical gap in nursing education and contributing to improved oral health outcomes in the broader community.

Date of Thesis submission	2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Western Sydney University
Sponsors	Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship
Supervisor	Lucie Ramjan (Supervisor), Ajesh George (Supervisor) & Yenna Salamonson (Supervisor)