Leadership Development in Dental Hygiene Education: Insights from a pilot study.

<b>Purpose</b> Increasing trends have identified the importance of leadership development for health care professionals, however this concept has been largely unexplored in dental hygiene (DH) curricula. Without leadership development, DH students may struggle to perceive themselves as leaders in their professional careers, limiting their full capabilities. The purpose of this pilot study was to design, implement, and evaluate a leadership development curriculum for DH students.<b>Methods</b> This pilot study used a cross-sectional design. All senior DH students (n=24) completed the DiSC personality assessment to assess personal traits and received leadership development instruction, including presentations, interactive learning activities, and engaging discussions. Students were invited to complete pre- and post-surveys with Likert-scale items to measure self-awareness and leadership behaviors and open-ended questions to explore leadership perspectives. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data, and emergent themes from the open-ended items were identifired.<b>Results</b> Most students (92.0%, n=22) completed both surveys. All (n=22) participants agreed that leadership development enhanced the awareness of individual professional values and increased their self-awareness; most (91.0%, n=20) rated their belief positively that leadership is an important skill in the DH profession. When comparing pre- and post-survey responses, learner confidence increased in defining leadership self-awareness (<i>p</i>=0.007). Open-ended responses supported perceptions regarding leadership development being essential in the curriculum and profession. Themes regarding behaviors, attitudes, values, and beliefs toward leadership development emerged to indicate an understanding and agreement for leadership skill-building to support professional roles and responsibilities. The programmatic course design was well-received. Feedback indicated value in both the content and interactive seminars as pedagogical strategies to deliver the curriculum.<b>Conclusion</b> The results of this study support the need and desire for DH students to engage in leadership development during their undergraduate programs. Findings can provide insight into the course design and content of leadership development programs in the DH curriculum.