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For dental education to continue to grow in Australia, there is a need to understand the effect of new innovations and to reflect on the way the profession as a whole has adapted to the highly innovative environment that is modern dental education. The Australian Dental Council's (ADC) accreditation activities for undergraduate dental programs is one constant over the last ten years that can be used to provide some insight into the reactions of schools to threats and opportunistic solutions brought about by change. In this study, accreditation reports were analyzed to provide trends in the themes of accreditation findings over the last ten years. The hypothesis was that the themes emanating from the findings of accreditation will reflect changes over time as schools have adapted to the changing higher education environment. A total of 820 recommendations were collated from twenty‐one reports. From the recommendations collated, a series of themes were identified; predominant themes included staff, external relationships, funding, structure, documentation, curriculum, and communications. No clear trends in terms of recommendations were noted over the study period, and themes remained fairly consistent over the years. The outcome of the study did not support the hypothesis that changing trends in accreditation recommendations over the last ten years would reflect changes in the environment in which education providers are operating.

The School of Dentistry in Western Australia developed a pregraduation intern year in which final‐year students, having completed their didactic education, undertook a focused clinical experiential program (CEP) over an extended year. This program was implemented for the first time in 2002. The aim of this study was to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the curriculum as perceived by graduates and to compare the perceptions of those graduates who did the CEP to those who did not. A survey with questions based on the graduate outcomes of the dental school was mailed to all graduates from 2000, 2001 (did not complete CEP), and 2004 (completed CEP). The response rate was 66 percent (n=57) and included twenty‐nine respondents who graduated before implementation of the CEP and twenty‐eight who completed the CEP. Most respondents (80 percent) were in the twenty to twenty‐nine age group, and there were slightly more males (53 percent). Learning outcome items with the highest mean scores were practicing universal precautions (4.2), behaving ethically (4.2), and demonstrating a satisfactory level of core dental knowledge (4.2). Practical skills outcomes with the highest scores were amalgam restorations (4.3), anterior endodontics (4.3), and single crowns (3.9). When comparing the respondents who did CEP (51 percent) with those who did not (49 percent), there were few significant differences. The general findings from this survey were that most graduates, whether completing the CEP or not, perceived themselves to be prepared, competent, and confident to practice as dentists and were most confident in managing problems that they most frequently encountered during training.

The aim of this study was to determine the health system costs associated with falls in older adults who had attended an emergency department (ED) in Western Australia. The data relating to the ED presentations and hospital admissions were obtained from population-based hospital administrative records for 2001?2002. The type of other health services (eg, outpatient, medical, community, ancillary and residential care), the quantity, and their cost were estimated from the literature. In adults aged 65 years and above, there were 18 706 ED presentations and 6222 hospital admissions for fall-related injuries. The estimated cost of falls to the health system was $86.4 million, with more than half of this attributable to hospital inpatient treatment. Assuming the current rate of falls remains constant for each age group and gender, the projected health system costs of falls in older adults will increase to $181 million in 2021 (expressed in 2001?02 Australian dollars). The economic burden to the health services imposed by falls in older adults is substantial, and a long-term strategic approach to falls prevention needs to be adopted. Policy in this area should be targeted at both reducing the current rate of falls through preventing injury in people from high-risk groups and reducing the future rate of falls through reducing population risk.

COVID-19 has altered public health higher education and its impact on pedagogy will be felt long into the future. In response to social distancing measures, teaching academics implemented a number of changes to curricula. It is important to better understand and begin to evaluate these changes, as well as set a course for future changes to public health curricula both during and after the pandemic to best enable transformative learning. Teaching academics have an understanding of academic hierarchies and student perceptions and are well placed to provide insights into current and future changes to pedagogy in response to the pandemic. A survey was developed to examine changes that academics had made to their teaching in response to COVID-19. Responses were received from 63 public health teaching academics from five universities in Australia, the United States, and Canada. Public health teaching academics rapidly implemented a number of changes to their teaching, including alterations that enabled online teaching. The great majority of changes to teaching were related to tools or techniques, such as synchronous tutorials delivered in a video meeting room. There remains further work for the public health pedagogy community in reevaluating teaching aims and teaching philosophies in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This could include examination of the weighting of different topics, including communicable diseases, in curricula. A series of questions to assist academics reformulating their curricula is provided. Public health teaching evolved rapidly to meet the challenges of COVID-19; however, ongoing adaptation is necessary to further enhance pedagogy.