Study of the impacts of patient‐educators on the course of basic sciences in dental studies

Abstract

Ever since 2006, Nantes University dental educators have started organising lectures led by the mother of a young patient suffering from ectodermic dysplasia (patient-educator) to help second-year students to better understand how important it is for their future dental work to better understand basic sciences. In this study, we have analysed this training experience on students' motivation. For this purpose, students were asked to complete questionnaires 10 days after the patient-educator's lecture (early assessment; n = 193) and 4 years later, during the last year of their dental studies (delayed assessment; n = 47). Moreover, 3 years after the first lecture, we analysed the ability of students to diagnose a mother carrying the ectodermic dysplasia genetic disorder, using a case-based learning exercise with a patient showing dental features similar to those exposed by the patient-educator (measure of knowledge; n = 42). Ten days after the lecture, the early assessment shows that all the students were interested in the lecture and 59% of the students declared being motivated to find out more about genetics whilst 54% declared the same thing about embryology courses. Moreover, 4 years later, 67% of the students remembered the patient-educator's lecture a little or very well. Three years after the course, 83% of the students diagnosed ectodermal dysplasia whilst studying the case-based example that listed typical dental phenotypes. In conclusion, this study shows that this original educational approach enhances dental students' motivation in learning basic sciences and that patient-educators could offer many benefits for students and patients.

Beyond catharsis: the nuanced emotion of patient storytellers in an educational role

“…Medical students also indicate that patient‐educators help them to develop insights that map closely to the dimensions of patient‐centred care, such as recognising patient needs and seeing the patient as part of the health care team . Across other health care fields, dentistry students indicate that patient‐led lectures enhance their motivation to learn . Standardised patients have also been used to effectively teach therapeutic communication skills to nursing students …”

The patient ' s voice in health and social care professional education

“…Patient involvement in education began in medicine (Wykurz and Kelly, 2002;Jha et al, 2009;Towle et al, 2010), nursing (Warne and McAndrew, 2005;Repper and Breeze, 2007;Terry, 2012) and social work (Cairney et al, 2006;Robinson and Webber, 2013), and in the education of mental health professionals from a variety of disciplines (Livingston and Cooper, 2004;Happell et al, 2014). It has more recently spread to other health professions such as physical therapy , occupational therapy (Cleminson and Moesby, 2013), pharmacy (Grimes et al, 2013) and dentistry (Renard et al, 2015).…”

Caractéristiques des savoirs des patients et liens avec leurs pouvoirs d’action : implication pour la formation médicale

“…Quant aux patients qui ont des savoirs expérientiels explicites, ce sont eux qu'il convient de recruter pour témoigner auprès des étudiants de leur vécu expérientiel dans les quatre domaines identifiés, sachant que ce type d'interventions est très apprécié des étudiants (Turner et al 2000). Enfin, certains patients, sous condition d'avoir des savoirs savants, spécialisés, peuvent également participer à l'ingénierie pédagogique (Pomey et al 2015a) et contribuer à l'enseignement de notions théoriques (Renard et al 2014).…”