Rate My Professor Denise Higgins

Dr. Denise Higgins is a Lecturer in Oral Health and Program Convenor for the Bachelor of Oral Health Therapy Program in the School of Health Sciences, College of Health, Medicine and Wellbeing at the University of Newcastle, Australia. She holds a PhD from the University of Newcastle, where her thesis examined the implementation of instructional design for dental and oral health simulation-based learning to support psychomotor skill acquisition through conceptual frameworks and educational theories. The findings and artefacts from her doctoral research have been integrated into the university's Bachelor of Oral Health Therapy curriculum. As Simulation Coordinator, Dr. Higgins has led transformative innovations in oral health education. In 2018, she developed the pioneering Virtual Anesthesia program, utilizing Oculus VR headsets to enable students to practice dental injections in simulated clinics with features like anatomical nerve visualization, capillary scaling, and real-time volume feedback. She also invented unique simulator model mouths crafted from synthetic skin mimicking human oral lining, allowing safe replication of injection techniques. These advancements replaced the risky apprenticeship model, markedly improving student confidence and establishing the University of Newcastle as a frontrunner in oral health simulation training.

Dr. Higgins' contributions have earned her national acclaim, including a 2023 Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning from the Australian Awards for University Teaching, recognizing a decade of innovation encompassing integrated simulation curricula, dental injection simulators, and VR serious games. She previously received the 2018 Vice-Chancellor’s Citation for Teaching Excellence in the Faculty of Health and Medicine. Her research centers on simulation-based dental education, work-integrated placement experiences, barriers to oral health for autistic individuals, weight stigma in dental settings, and business intelligence applications in dental records. Notable publications include 'A scoping review of simulation-based dental education' (2020, with M. Hayes, J. Taylor, J. Wallace), 'How do we teach simulation-based dental education? Time for an evidence-based best-practice framework' (2020), 'Weight stigma among dental professionals and in the dental setting: a scoping review' (2023, with Z. Malik), 'Barriers to Oral Health Care for Autistic Individuals—A Scoping Review' (2024), and 'Factors Affecting Student Experiences on Work-Integrated Placements: A Scoping Review of Trans-Tasman Studies' (2024, with D. James). Her work has had substantial impact by enhancing educational safety and efficacy in oral health training.