Postgraduate dental resident education: A pilot in age‐friendly “mentation” training

Abstract

ObjectivePostdoctoral dental education in caring for older adults lacks didactic and clinical training in mentation topics, one of the core elements of the Age‐Friendly Health Systems (AFHS) framework. Our primary goal was to launch a pilot project in clinical geriatrics focusing on older adults' mentation concerns, with a secondary goal to improve dental residents' confidence and competence in dental care and oral health.BackgroundAge‐friendly care elements are not routinely incorporated into the dental education of residents caring for older adults with cognitive impairment or dementia. Therefore, we implemented a pilot educational project, providing the missing educational opportunity for residents in geriatric training covering cognitive impairment and focusing on Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.Materials and MethodsWe designed educational sessions through a needs assessment, focus group discussions, and expert validation. We developed three e‐Learning modules covering mentation concerns and dementia screening. We tested the modules in a pilot study of 15 dental postdoctoral residents as an essential part of their clinical practice.ResultsThe dementia dental learning module increased the residents' satisfaction with didactic preparedness (4.45 0.97) and knowledge acquisition (4.36 0.84). Residents strongly believed that learning about the AFHS‐mentation topic would improve patient care.ConclusionOur pilot study is a pioneer project in support of a new AFHS‐themed dental curriculum for clinical education. Further expansion of the age‐friendly principles to include mobility, medications, and what matters to older adults will establish a model framework of redesigned geriatric dental education for academic centers.

Perception of Special-Care Dentistry among Dental Students at Universitas Indonesia: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…Formal education or continuing education through special-needs dental workshops for health professionals and students may affect their willingness to treat patients in the future and actively affect patient care [15,24,29]. Thus, it is necessary to have a special comprehensive curriculum regarding the didactic and clinical learning of SCD at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels [23,30]. At the University of Malaya, Malaysia, the SCD curriculum has been integrated into a module for undergraduate students in their final two academic years to provide students with adequate knowledge, clinical skills, attitudes, and self-confidence in caring for special-needs patients [22].…”

“…At the University of Malaya, Malaysia, the SCD curriculum has been integrated into a module for undergraduate students in their final two academic years to provide students with adequate knowledge, clinical skills, attitudes, and self-confidence in caring for special-needs patients [22]. Previous research has shown that postgraduate dental-resident education focused on older adults' mentation concerns increased confidence and competence in dental care and oral health [30]. This system could also be applied in Indonesia, allowing Indonesian dental students to learn about SCD and to become competent oral-care providers for special-needs patients.…”