For Jennie Balchunas, dental hygiene and library sciences are like a toothbrush and toothpaste: a perfect match.
A self-proclaimed zebra in a horse pen, Balchunas is a trained dental hygienist and librarian!
“It really helps me to build rapport, understand the terminology and know what information my clinicians need and want in an accurate and timely manner,” Balchunas said.
Always having a passion for working with people, Balchunas earned a Master’s in Occupational Therapy from FGCU, but learned it was not the right fit. After making it through her level-two internships, working 60-hour+ weeks and feeling burnt out, she realized this was not for her. She knew she loved treating patients and working with people and began new pursuits. She then earned her A.S. in Dental Hygiene from Santa Fe College. Her love for working with patients remained constant, but starting a health career during the height of COVID proved to be incredibly challenging.
In her heart, she always wanted to be a librarian.
“I was such a nerd and I loved reading. And I read so voraciously that my mom wanted to stop buying me books,” she said.
Wanting to find a way to work and support health care professionals, Balchunas completed her Master’s in Library Information Science with a certification in health informatics from FSU, where she discovered the career of Health Science Librarian. In this role, she continues to work with dental professionals and her experience as a hygenist provides an edge and added benefit: she brings a level of expertise and practical knowledge that immediately improves relationships and builds trust with the University of Florida College of Dentistry.
Dr. Olga Ensz, Clinical Associate Professor, Director of Community-Based Outreach, agrees Balchunas’ background adds to their programs. “I’ve had the pleasure of working with Jennie through our community-based outreach program, Saving Smiles, which helps meet the dental needs of thousands of Alachua County children each year. Her background as a dental hygienist allows her to connect with dental students in a meaningful way, while staying grounded in clinical relevance. Jennie’s warmth, dedication to her community, and commitment to students help ensure these programs make a real and lasting difference.”
Saving Smiles promotes children’s oral health by offering free, on-site preventive and limited dental care through collaboration with community partners. To maintain volunteering status with Saving Smiles involves health tests, like a physical and blood work. Balchunas maintains her dental hygiene license through completing 24 continuing education hours every two years and a background check every five years. That, on top of the continued education needed to maintain expertise in library sciences, can be challenging, but worthwhile. “I’m clearly not turned off by it…I’m thinking about getting the Consumer Health Information Specialization from the Academy of Health Information Professionals,” she said. For all librarians, information literacy is a cornerstone of their profession. For health science librarians, information literacy can be the difference between a patient who follows instructions from their provider with confidence or rejects advice and sees poor results.
The College of Dentistry has many community-based programs beyond Saving Smiles, like Super Sealant Saturday and mobile outreaches. The UF Libraries provide databases, journals, workshops and webinars to the UF Dentistry community. Balchunas teaches four workshops this semester on topics like how to perform simple searches in database and avoiding misinformation for healthcare providers. Balchunas, like all librarians, make themselves available for individual questions in one-on-one consultations.
Future goals for Balchunas include collaborations between the Health Science Center Library and the College of Dentistry to promote health literacy to patients. Balchunas is currently leading a scoping review on oral health literacy and how librarians are involved in supporting dental health literacy. She wants to ensure that clinicians and patients understand how librarians and libraries can play a role in supporting the promotion of information in the dental field.
Beyond the Dental School, Balchunas liaises to Applied Physiology & Kinesiology, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, and Orthopedic Surgery and Sports Medicine.