BDS Curriculum: Neglected Sibling

Abstract

Third year BDS Ibad-ur-Rehman 3 First year MBBS ABSTRACT:The medical educationists are emphasizing on the implementation of skills based curriculum which covers the oral health in a broader and global scale. Keeping in mind these things this study was conducted to know opinion of medical students regarding modern educational reforms and the present curriculum taught in their medical colleges. Methodology: This survey was done in medical colleges with four year program in dentistry in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. A four-question survey about the format and characteristics of the dental curriculum was circulated among the 200 dental graduates graduating in the year 2014 belonging to different dental colleges in Rawalpindi and Islamabad. The respondents expressed their answers in yes or no. Respondents indicated the name of their school and answered survey questions. Descriptive statistics including percentage distribution for each response were used. Responses were recorded separately for all the four years. Results: In response to the question about integration between oral diseases with systemic disease, almost all agreed that their curriculum is disjointed in first and second year. 40% of the students told that some integration is created in third and 30% agreed that the integration is there in fourth year. 20% said that the basic sciences were taught with clinical context in first and second year and was not done in third and fourth year. Exposure of dental students to community and public health services was around 20% in third year and 30% in fourth year. PBL and case based discussions are not used in the dental colleges in all years. Conclusions: The dental curriculum in Pakistan needs to cover a much broader spectrum of diseases as well as patients. Linking the curriculum with modern tools like PBL can improve dental education. The link between the basic and clinical teaching and incorporation of community health can lead to marked shift in educational approach of the medical students.

Perceptions of dental students’ regarding anatomy learning and assessment in integrated curriculum adopted by Shaheed Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto Medical University, Pakistan

“…Research [13] have concluded that motivation and performance of student for a particular subject improves if it is delivered in accordance to their learning styles; a study done concluded that for effective delivery of anatomy concepts the instructors should be aware of diverse learning styles and how to manage them [14] . National research in undergrad dental colleges found that teaching strategies like problem-based learning (PBL) linking Basic and Clinical sciences with community health can bring significant change in educational approach of dental students [15] .…”

Determining “Professionalism of Dental Students at Various Academic Levels by PSCOM Scale”

“…Previous literature in Pakistan has highlighted the lack of growth in professionalism in dentistry. This is due to lack of effective professionalism curriculum despite presence of subjects to address this need and justifying the need for a formal curriculum on professionalism (5,17) . It is necessary to assess this competency at an undergraduate level in order for graduates to achieve clinical excellence.…”

“…It can be presumed that students entering dental schools already possess some preconcept towards professionalism gained from previous experiences. The current dental curriculum is traditional and is not spiraled, other methods that bring change in students' behavior are not encouraged (4,5) .…”

Curriculum implementation challenges: Development and validation of an integrated curriculum implementation challenges tool

“…Individual interviews were conducted, and concurrent verbal probing technique was employed during the process. 4 The criteria of cognitive validity included: comprehension of the concept, coherent elaboration, and congruent answer. The final questionnaire was given to 27 faculty members to establish its reliability.…”

“…Various studies also suggested the need for modern teaching-learning methodologies as part of IC to produce competent HCPs in Pakistan. 4 Following the guidelines of PM&DC as well as the recommendations found in the literature, UCMD, UOL implemented IC.…”