Background. To study self-perceived preparedness of dental school graduates and the impact of COVID-19 on their preparedness. Method. An online survey was designed and sent electronically to students who are graduating in 2020, dentists who graduated in 2019 and doing their prelicensure training, and dentists who graduated before 2019. Four- point Likert scale was used to assess participants’ perception. Results. There were 209 participants responded to the online questionnaire. The mean total preparedness score (TPS) for the 209 participants was 97.6 (SD ±9.7) with a range of 69 to 120. The mean TPS of the different classes of participants was 99.5 for the class graduated before 2019, 98.1 for the 2020 class, and 95.1 for the 2019 class. Participants felt they are confident and extremely confident doing the majority of the required competencies. Weakness was mainly reported in surgical extraction for 2020 graduates due to the 8 weeks loss of their training. COVID-19 has considerable impact on 59.7% of the participants and marginal to no impact on 40.3%. The highest prevalence of those who thought it had some to severe impact on their confidence were those who graduated in year 2019 (73.4%). Conclusions. The graduates of University of Jordan felt confident in performing the majority of general dentistry procedures. COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the confidence of all the classes of participants even those graduated before 2019.

BackgroundTo study self-perceived preparedness of dental school graduates and the impact of COVID-19 on their preparedness.MethodAn online survey was designed and sent electronically to students who are graduating in 2020, dentists who graduated in 2019 and doing their prelicensure training, and dentists who graduated before 2019. Four- point Likert scale was used to assess participants’ perception.Results209 participants responded to the online questionnaire. The mean total preparedness score (TPS) for the 209 participants was 97.6 (SD ± 9.7) with a range of 69 to 120. The mean TPS of the different classes of participants was 99.5 for the class graduated before 2019, 98.1 for the 2020 class, and 95.1 for the 2019 class. Participants felt they are confident and extremely confident doing the majority of the required competencies. Weakness was mainly reported in surgical extraction for 2020 graduates due to the 8 weeks loss of their training. COVID-19 has considerable impact on 59.7% of the participants and marginal to no impact on 40.3%. The highest prevalence of those who thought it had some to severe impact on their confidence were those who graduated in year 2019 (73.4%). Of the participants 95.2% agreed that problem-based learning is a good educational tool and 58.5% agreed that competency-based assessment is a good educational and grading tool.ConclusionsThe graduates of University of Jordan felt confident in performing the majority of general dentistry procedures. COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the confidence of all the classes of participants even those graduated before 2019.

Background. To study self-perceived preparedness of dental school graduates and the impact of COVID-19 on their preparedness. Method. An online survey was designed and sent electronically to students who were graduating in 2020, dentists who graduated in 2019 and were doing their prelicensure training, and dentists who graduated before 2019. Four- point Likert scale was used to assess participants’ perception.Results. There were 209 participants responded to the online questionnaire. The mean total preparedness score (TPS) for the 209 participants was 97.6 (SD ±9.7) with a range of 69 to 120. The mean TPS of the different classes of participants was 99.5 for the class graduated before 2019, 98.1 for the 2020 class, and 95.1 for the 2019 class. Participants felt they are confident and extremely confident doing the majority of the required competencies. Weakness was mainly reported in surgical extraction for 2020 graduates due to the 8 weeks loss of their training. COVID-19 had considerable impact on 59.7% of the participants and marginal to no impact on 40.3%. The highest prevalence of those who thought it had some to severe impact on their confidence were those who graduated in year 2019 (73.4%).Conclusions. The graduates of University of Jordan felt confident in performing the majority of general dentistry procedures. COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the confidence of all the classes of participants even those graduated before 2019.