Undergraduates' self-reported clinical experience, confidence and perspectives of hospital and outreach paediatric dentistry: a three-year multi-centre evaluation

Abstract

A variety of educational approaches exist within U.K. dental schools, and institutions are constantly striving to improve the quality of their graduates. This study aimed to evaluate the self-reported confidence in, and clinical exposure to, paediatric dentistry at three U.K. dental schools (Liverpool, Manchester and Sheffield) over a three year period. Seventy-five percent of final year BDS undergraduates at the three dental schools completed an anonymous questionnaire capturing student self-reported clinical experience in seven core paediatric dentistry treatment skills, both in hospital and outreach settings. Visual analogue scales were used to record self-assessed confidence levels in aspects of paediatric dentistry and students were also asked to provide a written reflection of both their hospital and outreach placements. The results revealed that despite the variety of educational approaches taken, undergraduates reported very similar levels of clinical experience and confidence. Significant interschool differences in student experience were found with respect to the management of carious primary molars, believed to be a result of individual schools favouring different treatment regimes. Although outreach placements were seen as essential for gaining adequate student experience, the need to improve the consistency of teaching between hospital and outreach centres was highlighted. The study also emphasises the need to take care when using clinical targets in undergraduate teaching and identifies the potential benefits of undergraduate training in inhalation sedation. Finally, despite changes to the paediatric programmes with respect to dental trauma management, students remained lacking in confidence suggesting the need for further development.

Dental Students’ Perceived Clinical Competence in Prosthodontics: Comparison of Traditional and Problem‐Based Learning Methodologies

“…There are probably many valid and effective models for building competence in prosthodontics. If we used the clinical competence data regarding the fixed partial dentures as a proxy of the students’ global rating of their fixed prosthodontics education, using a 0–10 range, our results (6.6±1.5 for PBL students; 7.6±1.1 for traditional students) were within the average range of 5.6±2.2 reported by students at Ljubljana University (Slovenia) to 8.0±1.1 found among students at Nijmegen University (Netherlands) reported by Brand et al 20 Moreover, we did not find any significant differences regarding gender, which is in agreement with Walley et al's findings 18 …”

“…In our study, we assessed students’ self‐perceived clinical competence by means of a survey with a range of 0–10, which is an easy and valid method with which most students are familiar because it is commonly used in university evaluations. This simple method was recently used to measure the preparedness of 525 final‐year undergraduate dental students in the UK 18 . One limitation of our study is that its design with two cohorts of students who experienced two different teaching methodologies in different years could not control for other potential effects on student perceptions in individual years.…”

Undergraduate experience and self‐assessed confidence in paediatric dentistry at the University of Jordan Dental School

“…Dento-alveolar trauma management was also the area where students reported the lowest level of confidence in this study. This is in agreement with previous research reporting on confidence in management of dental trauma in students in Saudi Arabia (22), Japan (23) and the United Kingdom (21). Dentists' knowledge and emergency management of traumatic dental injuries were also found to be inadequate in several studies (24,25).…”

“…This audit has revealed some deficiencies in the undergraduate student paediatric dentistry training. An incisal tip restoration for a fractured permanent incisor was performed by 28% of dental students which is similar to reported figures in Dublin Dental School (14) but lower than other dental schools in the UK (13,21). Dento-alveolar trauma management was also the area where students reported the lowest level of confidence in this study.…”

Final year dental students' self‐assessed confidence in general dentistry

“…The scaling method selected was an ordinal numerical estimation method to rate the students' perception of self‐confidence . VAS was selected over Likert scale, as student perception was subjective, the method was sensitive to small changes, easy to administer (researcher) and use (participant) especially with clear points representing “no confidence,” “confident” and “very confident,” good reliability and validity, allowed comparison with other studies and use of numerical data for statistical analysis . The main disadvantages for psychosocial research were the subjective nature of the assessment .…”