Sent on behalf of the TBCEL Pilot Planning Team.

 

 

We invite you to participate in a pilot of a novel team-based initiative titled: Team-Based Collaborative Experiential Learning (TBCEL): From Head to Toes

The initiative offers a unique opportunity to engage in team-based learning with students from other health disciplines and patients, focusing on the integration of oral and overall health. Though oral health is integral to overall health, it is often underrepresented in non-oral health professional education. This pilot offers you the opportunity to explore the relationship in a collaborative manner with fellow health profession students in an experiential learning practice setting. We hope you join us and help interprofessional education planners gain insights into future opportunities promoting wholistic healthcare.

The commitment involves participation in the following:

ˇ         Team orientation session (via UM Zoom during a noon hour). This will take place in March/April.

ˇ         One to two in-person team meetings with dental or dental hygiene students and their patients in the dental clinic of the Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry (during a noon hour; about 70 minutes, includes a team debrief). These will take place between March-May.

ˇ         Team Focus Group (via UM Zoom during a noon hour; no more than 80 minutes). This will take place after the second patient meeting between March-June.

A short presentation about the pilot took place on March 11 in Apotex 050. This email is a follow-up to that presentation. If you would like to participate in the pilot, please contact the TBCEL pilot investigators Dr. Laura MacDonald at Laura.MacDonald@umanitoba.ca or Dr.  Moni Fricke at Moni-Fricke@umanitoba.ca. Dr. Gayle Halas is also a co-investigator. Her email is Gayle.Halas@umanitoba.ca

 

Please note that there is a good chance that one of the team-based meetings will take place at noon on March 23rd and or March 30th, 2026, but there will be others.

 

The TBCEL is an opportunity to volunteer in helping develop quality interprofessional education sessions for the Rady Faculty of Health Sciences students. Additionally, those who maintain portfolios, it is an opportunity to reflect on a novel interprofessional collaboration experience.

 

The TBCEL pilot has been reviewed and approved by the Human Ethics Research Board, University of Manitoba.

 

On behalf of the pilot planning team,

 

 

Laura MacDonald, RDH, PhD

(she/her)

School of Dental Hygiene

Associate Professor

Dr. Gerald Niznick College of Dentistry & School of Dental Hygiene

780 Bannatyne Ave.,

and College Lead, Office of Interprofessional Collaboration

Rady Faculty Health Sciences

University of Manitoba

Winnipeg, Manitoba

R3E 0W2

Laura.MacDonald@umanitoba.ca

 

I acknowledge that the University of Manitoba campuses are located on original lands of Anishinaabeg, Ininiwak, Anisininewuk, Dakota Oyate, Dene and Inuit, and on the National Homeland of the Red River Métis . I respect the treaties made on these territories. I acknowledge the harms and mistakes of the past and present. With a spirit of reconciliation and collaboration, I move forward in partnership with Indigenous communities. In all my actions, I am grounded in salutogenesis, and aim to contribute to health creation within places and settings where people live, learn, play, work, and love.