Utilization of the ADHA National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda (Critical Issues in Dental Hygiene) (American Dental Hygienists' Association ) (Excerpt‪)‬

In this issue of the Journal of Dental Hygiene, we are pleased to share with you research findings from our study entitled, "A Delphi Study to Update the American Dental Hygienists' National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda." This is the second time that the Delphi technique has been used to gain consensus on those topics deemed priorities for dental hygiene research, which will allow the purposeful building of the knowledge base needed to support education and practice. The following is an excerpt taken from our report submitted to the 2006-2007 ADHA Board of Trustees, in which we encouraged them to adopt this revised agenda as the 2007 ADHA National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda. The Board of Trustees accepted our recommendation, and this document is now available for use by the dental hygiene and global health care communities, by accessing http://www.adha.org/research/ nra.htm. Here we propose a number of strategies for how our Association and the general dental hygiene community can use the Agenda to guide the work efforts of the profession. We welcome your comments and thoughts about these strategies, and on the revised National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda. This update to the ADHA National Dental Hygiene Research Agenda (NDHRA) utilized the Delphi study technique, a structured, scientific approach used to gain consensus on those research topics deemed most critical by a sample of dental hygiene experts. We feel that the content is reflective of current national health issues, and is well-aligned with research agendas from other dental and health care professions. Further, the research priorities identified in this study closely parallel those of the initial Delphi study conducted in 1995. (1)