Nursing professor partners with DCG for screenings of high-risk patients

Lynn Glenn, PhD, an assistant professor in the Department of Nursing Science, is taking her research outside of the College of Nursing to meet patients where they are. Her research focus centers on diabetes prevention, screening and early detection. Her newest interdisciplinary project brings diabetes screenings to high-risk populations.

“It’s common for patients to get lab testing as part of their primary care, but the younger adult population is less likely to engage in regular care. They often don’t seek healthcare unless they are sick,” said Glenn, who noted this information influenced her project to do a diabetes screening for high-risk younger adults in a non-traditional clinical setting.

“I wanted to offer preventative services to the higher risk young adult populations that don’t have primary care or are uninsured,” she explained.

She decided to partner with the Dental College of Georgia at Augusta University because a dental clinic seemed like the perfect non-traditional setting.

Glenn received grant funding for the project through the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners (AANP). Through the grant, she’s been able to purchase the necessary hemoglobin A1C blood glucose tests and hire a research assistant in the clinical trials office to do critical paperwork and data entry.

The official title of her project is “An Interprofessional Learning Experience and Approach to Diabetes Risk Screening.” As part of the funding, she will present at the AANP’s Annual Conference in 2027. Beyond the funding, her project engages doctor of nursing practice, dental medicine and dental hygiene students in interprofessional learning.

“We’ve met a few times to speak about the importance of collaborating with other disciplines and the values and ethical situations that healthcare professionals must deal with,” Glenn said. “They’ve been able to see that nurses, dental hygienists and dentists all have the same primary goal. We are all working together in different ways to keep people healthy.”

Nurse practitioner students have come to observe the dental and dental hygiene students at the dental student clinic. Alongside the diabetes screening in the clinic, DNP students Asia Lewis and Allie Thompson implemented a cardiovascular risk screening for their DNP project earlier this year.

“I’m excited to be exposing all different students to what our professions do,” Glenn said. “It’s been great to educate students about diabetes and the patients really appreciate that we have offered this complimentary screening.”

Glenn, who has been working on her research project in DCG for about a year, said everyone involved is interested in further interdisciplinary collaboration. This experience has proven to be a supportive and beneficial learning environment and collaborative effort. She said the faculty and administration have helped make this project a success.

“They are eager for me to find another project and more grant funding. It’s really been a win-win for everyone.”

Glenn is grateful to associate dean for the Department of Patient Services, Alan Furness, DMD, associate dean for the Department of General Dentistry, Kim Capehart, DDS, and assistant professor in the Dental Hygiene department, Ashley Christman for their support and efforts. Each one of them has played a role in making this partnership so seamless and helping to facilitate her work with the students.

“Dental health is a vital part of your overall health. This partnership shows how much better patient care can be when different medical fields work as a team,” Furness said. “By bringing nursing and dentistry together, we’re giving our students great hands-on experience while offering health screenings to Georgians who might otherwise miss out on care.”

Tenishia Smith, DCG director of patient services, plays a large role in Glenn’s project. Each morning, she provides a list of patients within the eligibility criteria. This allows Glenn to look at the list and ask the students and their patients whether they are interested in the diabetes screening. The rest of the research project team has assisted in data extraction from the dental patient records for further analysis of the relationship between periodontal disease and HgA1C levels.

So far, Glenn has screened 125 patients and is aiming to reach at least 150. The project will finish in June and then she will analyze the results for presentation and further dissemination.