Department of Geriatrics, Inselspital, Bern University Hospital, and University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Department of Reconstructive Dentistry and Gerodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
Eur J Dent Educ. 2022 Feb;26(1):21-27. doi: 10.1111/eje.12668. Epub 2021 Mar 23.
In the light of the growing ageing population, it is important that future dentists be taught geriatric competencies to assure good dental care and treatment addressing the special needs of older patients.
We developed and evaluated a geriatric teaching programme amongst final year undergraduate dental students (n = 30) at the University of Bern, Switzerland. The geriatric teaching programme was based on the European undergraduate curriculum in geriatric medicine for medical students covering the following eight geriatric domains that were considered relevant to dental care: Analgesics, cognitive impairment, decision-making capacity, gait and balance disorder, hearing impairment, malnutrition, polypharmacy and vision impairment. Using a pre/post-design, we administered a structured questionnaire including standardised questions on self-rated and tested competencies. Both assessments scores were standardised to a maximum score of 100 points. Data were evaluated by comparison of pre-test and post-test mean scores.
The geriatric teaching programme proved to be feasible covering eight geriatric domains based on a case-based didactic approach in totally eight 45-minute lessons. Both self-rated and tested competencies of dental students increased in all eight domains in the course of the geriatric teaching programme. After the geriatric teaching programme, both mean self-rated competency scores (67.9 vs. 49.6, p < .001) and mean tested competency scores (78.7 vs. 56.7 points, p < .001) significantly improved compared to baseline.
Integrating a consolidated refined geriatric teaching programme is a potentially feasible and effective method for dental undergraduate students and is expected to have an impact on better dental care of older patients.
随着人口老龄化的加剧，未来的牙医需要接受老年学方面的培训，以确保为老年患者提供满足其特殊需求的优质口腔护理和治疗。
我们在瑞士伯尔尼大学（University of Bern）为口腔医学专业的应届本科毕业生（n=30）开发并评估了一个老年教学课程。该老年教学课程以医学生的欧洲本科老年医学课程为基础，涵盖了以下 8 个被认为与口腔护理相关的老年学领域：止痛药、认知障碍、决策能力、步态和平衡障碍、听力障碍、营养不良、多种药物治疗和视力障碍。采用预-后设计，我们采用了一份结构问卷，其中包括对自我评估和测试能力的标准化问题。对两次评估的得分都进行了标准化，最高得分为 100 分。通过比较预测试和后测试的平均分数来评估数据。
基于基于案例的教学方法，该老年教学课程总共包含 8 个 45 分钟的课程，涵盖了 8 个老年学领域，证明是可行的。在老年教学课程中，所有 8 个领域的学生自我评估和测试的能力都有所提高。在老年教学课程结束后，自我评估能力的平均得分（67.9 分比 49.6 分，p<0.001）和测试能力的平均得分（78.7 分比 56.7 分，p<0.001）与基线相比显著提高。
整合一个经过强化的老年学教学课程对于口腔医学专业的本科生来说是一种潜在可行且有效的方法，有望改善对老年患者的口腔护理。
