Teaching and Assessment of Dentist‐Patient Communication Skills: A Systematic Review to Identify Best‐Evidence Methods

Abstract

Dentist‐patient communication skills are important aspects of contemporary oral health care, as shared decision making with patients becomes more common. The aim of this systematic review of the literature on teaching and assessment methodologies for communication skills in dental practice was to categorize those skills most relevant to dental practice and determine the best‐evidence teaching and assessment methods. The systematic review was conducted using MEDLINE, EBM‐Cochrane Libraries, Embase, ERIC, BIOSIS, CAB Abstracts, and PsycINFO using the OVID search engine, together with manually searching relevant journal articles. Relevant data were extracted from all included articles, and thematic analysis, categorization, and quality review of the articles was performed. Fifty articles published between 2000 and 2016 were identified as relevant to this study. Most were comparative design studies. The largest numbers were single group studies with before and after tests and cross‐sectional studies. A total of 26 communication skills were identified and grouped into four major categories: generic skills, case‐specific skills, time‐specific skills, and emerging skills. Review of the teaching methods described in those articles showed that educators used a combination of passive and active strategies. All the assessment measures were considered to be valid and reliable. This categorization of essential dentist‐patient communication skills reported in the literature may be used to assist in curriculum design along with use of tested teaching methods and validated assessment measures. The review highlights the need for more robust study designs for research in this important aspect of dental education.

Comparative Study of Attitudes towards Communication Skills Learning between Medical and Dental Students in Saudi Arabia

“…Section two focused on communication skills using the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS) [17,18]. The CSAS is a validated, well-established instrument used for assessing CS [18].…”

“…Several sociodemographic and education factors were reported to influence positive and negative students' attitudes towards CS learning. These included age [10,11], gender [11][12][13], students' self-rating CS [14,15], need of improvement [11], doctor parents, being socialized to negative attitudes [10][11][12][13][14][15], ethnicity and cultural beliefs [11], course contents [11], timing of the course offered [13], teaching methods [13], learning environment [16], assessment methods [11,17], apathy to CS [18], image as 'social non-clinical science' by medical students [19,20], and school curriculum type [7,21,22].…”

“…Evidence showed that there is a gap of knowledge among medical graduates in terms of necessary soft or supporting skills [23,24]. Studies have also demonstrated that communication skills are teachable and trainable [13,17,25]. Since the student is the primary customer or stakeholder in the educational process, a student-centered curriculum should address the students' needs, values, learning experiences, behaviour, and beliefs.…”

Tradução e adaptação transcultural da versão brasileira do questionário Dental Patient Feedback on Consultation

“…O questionário DPFC, bem como as suas adaptações, apresenta uma grande variedade de possíveis aplicações, tendo sido, inclusive, utilizado para a mensurar a qualidade da comunicação entre cirurgiões-dentistas e pacientes pediátricos (Wong et al, 2017). A percepção do paciente sobre a qualidade da comunicação no ambiente clínico pode, inclusive, ser incorporada pelas Instituições de Ensino Odontológico para contribuir na formação de futuros profissionais através da aquisição de habilidades de comunicação (Carey et al, 2010;Khalifah & Celenza, 2019).…”

Caries dental: de la placa ecológica a las decisiones clínicas

“…En consecuencia, una enfermedad multifactorial requiere explorar muchos más aspectos que la detección de biopelícula o preguntar por la dieta, para poder trabajar de manera colaborativa con el paciente para encontrar cambios contextualmente viables que incluyan la educación, ingreso económico, nutrición y acceso a servicios de salud del grupo familiar entre otros. Para controlar y prevenir la enfermedad, se requiere el desarrollo de habilidades de comunicación, fundamentales en la indagación que superan el diligenciamiento de información en un instrumento como la historia clínica (45). Al reconocer cuales son los múltiples factores que explican el proceso de salud y enfermedad de cada paciente la perspectiva de atención cambia, de tener como centro los tratamientos clínicos ofrecidos directamente por el profesional, a una perspectiva de atención centrada en el paciente-enfermedad.…”