Soc/Clin Research Assistant

UNC-Chapel Hill•Chapel Hill, NC

About The Position

The overall goal of this 7-year UG3/UH3 collaborative project is to develop an interventional training for oral healthcare professionals based on behavioral skills determined to positively impact adult-child interactions in pediatric dental care. The goal of this line of research is to measure the mechanisms involved in the effectiveness of this training on dental provider utilization of these skills, and how skill utilization affects satisfaction, adherence, and behaviors of very young children (under the age of 6) and their parents/caregivers. This project will align community- and university-based dental providers (dentists, hygienists, assistants) with a research team to develop and test the effects of a training workshop on outcomes related to provider implementation (acceptability, understanding, feasibility, system climate, and system support), training (provider knowledge, fidelity, skill use, acceptability, satisfaction), and caregiver-child experiences within a dental appointment (child cooperation, distress, and pain, as well as family acceptability and satisfaction). With an innovative training based on a well-established behavior management program for preschoolers, Parent-Child Interaction Therapy ( PCIT ), this project will help determine if oral health care providers’ responsivity to children’s developmental needs can be changed and effectively impact the experience of dental care in very young children. The Research Coordinator will be based at the UNC -Chapel Hill Adams School of Dentistry and will work under the supervision of Dr. Divaris to carry out the proposed research activities. S/he will devote 3.6 calendar months in Year 2 (2023-24, i.e., June, July, August), 12.0 calendar months in Years 3-6 (2024-28), and 7.2 calendar months in Year 7 (2028-29). The research coordinator will work directly with Dr. Divaris to carry out all planned research program activities at the UNC site.

Responsibilities

Recruitment, enrollment, consent of practitioner and patient study participants.
Scheduling of study team visits to participating clinics.
Data collection (i.e., video recordings of dental practitioners, questionnaire administration to families of patients).
Scheduling and management of logistics for the conduct of practitioner training sessions (2-4 per year) at UNC .
Participation in practitioner training using the already-developed educational material that is part of the study’s clinical protocol.
Data entry and quality assessment/quality control.
Supervision of volunteer study assistants.
Preparation of progress reports for the UNC site.
Participation in study-wide monthly calls via zoom coordination.
Participation in a study-wide annual meeting out-of-state.