SMART® Purpose: Our purpose is to break the cycle of poverty and positively impact the trajectory of lives by ensuring the wellness of children to support their educational attainment and competencies. We achieve this by proactively working with ALL students in a given school building to identify the physical, social, emotional, and behavioral barriers to classroom success. We then swiftly deliver interventions to address those barriers, thus creating optimal conditions for learning.
SMART® Clinics: Located and fully integrated within schools to proactively provide medical and behavioral health care services, our scope of care includes prevention and screenings; urgent care for minor illness and injuries; a CLIA-waived lab for testing including strep, flu, covid, urinary tract infections and hematocrit; chronic disease management; vaccinations; routine physicals; and individual, family, and group behavioral health services. SMART® Clinics are open in full alignment with school days and hours.
Our SMART® Clinical Team and Staff: We seek highly qualified and skilled individuals with a drive and passion for providing the best possible care for our students, their families, teachers, and staff. A qualified candidate will exemplify the qualities of a great team member and individual performer, and will prioritize this position with resilience, compassion, emotional maturity, strong work ethic, grit, and integrity. This work, while demanding, is highly rewarding and affirming. You will know, without a doubt, that you are part of an initiative that is improving student health, academic outcomes, and ultimately the trajectory of a life.
Position Summary: The SMART® Dentist is a vital member of an integrated, school-based care team embedded within the educational environment and operating in partnership with the school district. As part of a multidisciplinary team, this role delivers exceptional-quality diagnostic, preventive, and restorative oral health services that support the SMART® Whole Child, Whole School approach. The SMART® Dentist collaborates closely with medical, behavioral health, and care coordination staff to ensure continuity of care, contribute to real-time screening and intervention, and address barriers to student learning.
This position advances student health through comprehensive dental care, early identification of oral health needs, patient education, and coordinated care within the SMART® Clinic model. It requires a strong commitment to public health, health equity, and culturally responsive care, particularly in serving diverse and underserved student populations.
The ideal candidate exemplifies SMART® Core Values, including a sense of urgency, entrepreneurial spirit, customer-service focus, and servant leadership, while consistently demonstrating professionalism, discretion, and diplomacy in interactions with students, families, faculty, and staff.
To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.
Schedule and Availability:
· This is an independent contractor position providing on-site services during school hours throughout the academic year, in alignment with the school calendar (August – June).
· Contractors must be available to provide a minimum of 8 hours per week, with potential opportunities for up to 24 hours per week based on clinic needs and contractor availability (August – June).
· Salary Range: TBD per hour, commensurate with experience.
Preferred Qualifications:
- DDS or DMD degree from an accredited dental school
- Active dental license in Rhode Island
- DEA license (or eligibility)
- Strong clinical and diagnostic skills
- Excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Ability to work effectively in a fast-paced, team-based environment
- Commitment to serving pediatric and adolescent populations in a school-based setting
Key Responsibilities
- Comprehensive Dental Care: Perform exams, diagnoses, and develop individualized treatment plans for students/patients
- Clinical Procedures: Provide general dentistry services, including restorative care, crown and bridge, simple extractions, and removable prosthetics
- Prevention & Early Intervention: Identify oral health concerns early and intervene to reduce barriers to student learning and overall wellness
- Patient Education: Educate students and families on oral hygiene, disease prevention, and treatment options in a culturally responsive manner
- Care Coordination: Collaborate with SMART® clinical team members (medical, behavioral health, and care coordination staff) to ensure integrated, Whole Student care
- Documentation & Compliance: Maintain accurate, timely clinical records in accordance with regulatory and organizational standards
- Clinical Excellence & Safety: Adhere to all clinical protocols, OSHA standards, and applicable state regulations
- Team Collaboration: Partner with dental hygienists and clinic staff to ensure efficient clinic flow and an exceptional-quality patient experience
Additional Key Daily Responsibilities
· Track referrals and follow-ups on patients by utilizing the eTHOS™ follow-up tool.
· Participate in daily huddle with the clinical team.
· Maintain close collaboration with school administration, faculty, behavioral health team, school social worker, school resource officers, and SMART® staff and providers.
· Complete all charting by the end of the day, including:
o EHR charting
o eTHOS™ charting
Core Competencies and Professional Characteristics
· Outstanding interpersonal skills, including excellent written and verbal skills.
· Capacity to maintain flexibility, problem solving, and an innovative mindset amidst constantly changing circumstances within the school building, patient population, and daily clinic schedule.
· Performance improvement and patient safety knowledge is required.
· Critical thinking and sound judgment to promptly report all potential patient safety risks to provider.
· Good organizational skills in the preparation of daily work schedules and the assignment of duties and responsibilities.
· Ability to effectively work with physicians, clients, and other personnel in a cooperative, collaborative manner that improves clinical outcomes.
· Ability to analyze data and possess an aptitude for mathematics and statistics.
· Show understanding of relationships between medical and psychological systems within the cultural context of the individual patient.
· Ability to address patients’ motivational factors and readiness to change.
· Focus on functional outcomes.
· Change-focused and able to measure outcomes at every visit.
· Ability to manage multiple tasks efficiently and effectively.
· Ability to work in a fast-paced, patient service-oriented environment.
· Ability to promote quality improvement through development and maintenance of standards.
· Ability to maintain professional conduct in all work-related and/or emergent situations.
· Ability to work a flexible staffing schedule.
· Possess a holistic, Whole Child approach at understanding, evaluating, and treating all health needs that may be barriers to academic achievement.
· Promote preventative health strategies.
Continued Education and Self-Development
· Participate in quality assurance review, including systematic review of records and treatment plans on a periodic basis, per medical provider organization requirements.
· Apply standardized care guidelines in clinical practice.
· Identify and address opportunities to improve clinical practice and delivery of care.
· Assist with team analysis of eTHOS™ data and other available data regarding patient populations to identify issues and plan for improvement of care, in conjunction with SMART® Team members.
· Maintain current certification in compliance with current state law and organizational requirements.
· Attend continuing education seminars/classes pertinent to SMART® Clinics, noting that attendance should correspond with a day that school is not in session to avoid an interruption in continuous patient care.
Benefits:
Work Location: In person
