At West Virginia University, students enrolled in the five health schools – Dentistry, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Public Health – engage in immersive, hands-on experiences to prepare them to best serve their patients and communities as part of a collaborative practice team.
A new initiative, MUSHROOM – Oral Health Integration, is expanding on the longstanding MUSHROOM community outreach project and providing additional opportunities for students to build on classroom curriculum while serving vulnerable populations.
“Our team decided to develop the oral health integration for Project MUSHROOM because many people fail to realize how connected oral health and overall health are,” Melia Privett, a dental hygiene student who helped develop the initiative, said. “Neglecting oral hygiene can lead to serious health complications if there is no prevention and/or intervention. We wanted to bring more attention to the fact that having good oral hygiene is important and should not be ignored.
MUSHROOM—Multidisciplinary Unsheltered Homeless Relief Outreach of Morgantown—brings together health professions students, faculty, staff, and other volunteers for “street rounds,” providing the basics of care including food, water, clothing, and medical intervention for individuals who are experiencing homelessness. The program was established at the WVU School of Medicine more than 20 years ago and has grown to include expanded resources and services and extended its reach across the state.
“The most rewarding part of this project is knowing that we are educating and helping protect the Morgantown community,” Privett added. “Even though our target audience is the unsheltered population of Morgantown, anyone can learn from us about oral health and why good oral hygiene is so important.”
The Oral Health Integration aims to raise awareness among healthcare students of the unique barriers to oral health faced by unhoused populations, promote social responsibility and values through practical application, implement a sustainable method of integrating oral healthcare by applying the Improved Oral Health Outcomes framework, and strengthen the mission of WVU Health Sciences.
Selected for funding as part of the WVU Health Sciences Office of Interprofessional Education’s 2025-2026 Student Innovation Challenge, the initiative was developed by team members including dental hygiene students Privett, Madeline Amoia, and Jefferson Umana, medical students Victoria Mackowiak and Ethan Malinoski, and mental health and addiction studies student Hope DiFederico.
“This student team exemplifies the qualities that define successful interprofessional collaboration,” Jacob Greenfield, OTD, assistant professor in the Division of Occupational Therapy and IPE project mentor, said. “They bring together the clinical insight of medical students, the behavioral and recovery-oriented expertise of an addiction therapy student, and the preventive and patient-education strengths of dental hygiene trainees. Their diverse training backgrounds position them exceptionally well to address the complex medical-dental integration needs central to Project MUSHROOM’s mission.”
To develop the oral health integration and ensure its sustainability, the student team identified the unique barriers to access to oral healthcare for the population, completed a literature review to guide their outcomes model, and contributed discipline-specific interventions. They also worked with mentors Kaitlyn McQuain, MS, and Elizabeth Southern Puette, MS, assistant professors in the Department of Dental Hygiene, and Greenfield.
Among their goals for the project, the students included a pre- and post-rounds survey to gauge students’ understanding of their role as healthcare providers for individuals experiencing homelessness, assembly of oral health kits, English and Spanish informational materials, volunteer education and recruitment, and increased street rounds participation.
“The MUSHROOM initiative—focused on improving oral health access, prevention, and integration for vulnerable populations—has been an outstanding platform for students to engage deeply in cross-disciplinary teamwork, evidence-based problem solving, and patient-centered system redesign,” Greenfield said. “Each member has contributed thoughtfully to conceptualizing an innovative and sustainable approach to oral healthcare delivery within the MUSHROOM framework. Their interdisciplinary approach not only enriches the proposal itself but promises to yield a richer learning experience and, ultimately, a stronger intervention for our communities.”
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jw/7/23/26
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