Developing a primary dental care outreach (PDCO) course – part 1: practical issues and evaluation of clinical activity

Abstract

Once the practical issues and challenges of setting up a new clinical course have been overcome PDCO has a valuable role to play in preparing undergraduates for their future practising careers.

The Sheffield outreach teaching programme

“…24,25 Those programmes and Newcastle's and Manchester's students are hosted in PCT community services and students attend for one or two sessions weekly or fortnightly. 7,26 In contrast the Sheffield programme involves block attendance in smaller units 'piggybacked' onto existing services, half of which are general practices to give greater breadth of experience. This dispersed model of outreach is commended to other schools as an efficient and effective means of providing experience in delivering primary care.…”

Evaluation of an outreach education model over five years: Perception of dental students and their outreach clinical mentors

“…Outreach education has gained increasing interest in dental education as it offers undergraduate dental students complementary educational exposure to different environments (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7). Although there are common denominators within outreach education, there is considerable variability amongst the aims expressed for outreach education.…”

Outreach training: the special interest group’s report

“…Access to these resources provides demonstrated benefits to students' confidence, competence, extended team-working and professionalism through an increase in the quantity and variety of clinical experience (2,4,5,6,7,8,9). Moreover, these benefits appear to be without significant detriment to other learning experiences (10).…”