The purpose of this project was to implement diabetes screening for patients with diabetes risk factors during their hygiene appointments at the dental school clinic. Diabetes is an epidemic in the U.S. 18 Million are currently effected and it is expected to rise over the next few years. One third of those with diabetes are asymptomatic and undiagnosed. There is literature to support screening for diabetes in non-primary care settings. There is a bidirectional relationship between diabetes and periodontal disease. Many patients with diabetes have at least one diabetes risk factor. A significant number of people see the dentist at least once a year.

Critical thinking by health professionals has been linked to improved public health outcomes due to its effect on evidence-based practice, error rates, use of technology, and patient centered care. To ensure the best maternal newborn health outcomes, critical thinking in nurses is an important goal. The major purpose of this research was to examine the degree to which topic knowledge, individual interest, and relational reasoning predict critical thinking in maternity nurses. For this online study, 182 maternity nurses were recruited from national nursing listservs. A key finding was that the three individual difference factors explained a significant proportion of variance in critical thinking with a large effect size, with topic knowledge identified as the strongest predictor. Notably, individual interest and relational reasoning, which are not strongly emphasized in nursing education, were identified as significant predictors of critical thinking. The findings suggest that these individual difference factors should be included in future studies of critical thinking in nursing.