Pandarathodiyil Anitha Krishnan, Mani Shani Ann, Ghani Wan Maria Nabillah, Ramanathan Anand, Talib Rozaidah, Zamzuri Ahmad Termizi
Faculty of Dentistry, SEGi University, Petaling Jaya, Malaysia.
Department of Paediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Eur J Dent Educ. 2023 Feb;27(1):78-86. doi: 10.1111/eje.12779. Epub 2022 Feb 11.
Dental education involves performing clinical procedures on patients under expert supervision. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine face-to-face teaching-learning-assessment dynamics world over. This study assessed the self-perceived preparedness of dental undergraduate students for practice, whose clinical training was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic from dental schools across Malaysia.
This cross-sectional web-based questionnaire survey was done among new dental graduates of the academic year 2019-2020 and the final year undergraduate students (academic year 2020-2021) from dental schools in Malaysia, using the Dental Undergraduates Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS), from 6th to 26th April 2021. The questionnaire addressed clinical skill competence, and cognitive and behavioral attributes. The number of respondents needed to achieve a confidence level of 95% with margin of error of 5% was 306.
A total of 453 (243 final year students and 210 new graduates) responded from dental schools nationwide, with a response rate of 30.6%. The overall mean score for preparedness for dental practice was 76.3±14.7, for clinical skills 39.7±7.3, and behavioral and cognitive attributes 36.5±9.1. New graduates had significantly higher mean preparedness score (78.6±14.4) as compared to students in their final year (74.2±14.7). Performing endodontic treatment on multi-rooted teeth had the lowest perceived competency (29.8%), followed by assessing treatment needs of patients requiring orthodontics (37.1%), prescribing drugs (46.6%) and providing crowns using principles of tooth preservation (48.1%).
Satisfactory scores were obtained for most attributes. The final-year cohort was significantly less prepared for dental practice compared to the newly graduated cohort.
牙科教育涉及在专家监督下对患者进行临床操作。新冠疫情扰乱了全球常规的面对面教学-学习-评估模式。本研究评估了马来西亚各牙科学院的牙科本科学生对实践的自我认知准备情况，他们的临床培训因新冠疫情而中断。
2021年4月6日至26日，采用牙科本科生准备情况评估量表（DU-PAS），对马来西亚牙科学院2019-2020学年的新牙科毕业生和本科最后一年学生（2020-2021学年）进行了基于网络的横断面问卷调查。问卷涉及临床技能能力、认知和行为属性。达到95%置信水平且误差幅度为5%所需的受访者数量为306人。
全国牙科学院共有453人（243名本科最后一年学生和210名新毕业生）回复，回复率为30.6%。牙科实践准备情况的总体平均分为76.3±14.7，临床技能为39.7±7.3，行为和认知属性为36.5±9.1。与本科最后一年的学生（74.2±14.7）相比，新毕业生的平均准备得分显著更高（78.6±14.4）。对多根牙进行根管治疗的感知能力最低（29.8%），其次是评估正畸患者的治疗需求（37.1%）、开药（46.6%）以及运用牙齿保存原则制作牙冠（48.1%）。
大多数属性获得了令人满意的分数。与新毕业的学生群体相比，本科最后一年的学生群体对牙科实践的准备明显不足。
