Abstract
Purpose: To explore oral health knowledge and the education of the nurse practitioner student to improver their knowledge as an outcome; while simultaneously reviewing literature in order to determine the limitation of the education content and knowledge for the nurse practitioner student as it pertains to oral health.|Background: Oral health conditions are preventable, decrease quality of life and a threat to public health on a global scale. The cost of poor oral health in the United States is in the billions. Oral diseases have been linked to other comorbidities such as heart disease and diabetes.|Sample/Setting: Creighton Family Nurse Practitioner (FNP)/Adult Gerontology (AG) primary care students and Creighton FNP faculty; Three years of Creighton medical students were invited to voluntarily participate.|Methods: A web-based education module of lectures paired with PowerPoints in a self-paced format. Pre-test and posttest was administered along with a modified Student Satisfaction and Self-Confidence in Learning Scale.|Results: 544 participants invited; 17 opened the module;13 opened the pre-test- 13 out of 13 answered question 1-3; 12 out of 13 answered questions 4-5; 11 out of 13 answered questions 6-10; Pre-test score was 53%. Six participants completed the posttest with a score of 91.6%. Student Satisfaction score 22.5/25 with a mean of 4.50/5; Self-Confidence score 34.34/40, with a mean of 4/29/5, with six participants completing both sections.|Conclusion: The development of the education module benefited the students and current practitioner as evidence by the increase in the posttest scores and the overall satisfaction and self-confidence scores. The education module can be integrated into the current graduate nursing curriculum for specific teachings related to oral health and could be used for continuing education for current nurse practitioners.