Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Health Sciences, University of Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria.
Department of Preventive Dentistry, Faculty of Dental Sciences, College of Medicine, University of Lagos, Lagos State, Nigeria.
Pan Afr Med J. 2022 Apr 22;41:328. doi: 10.11604/pamj.2022.41.328.33123. eCollection 2022.
dental training aims to produce committed dentists who are professional and empathetic in providing patient-centered oral healthcare and improved quality of life. This study aimed to assess the motives of dental students to study dentistry, their specialty preferences, and their empathy scores by motives and specialty preference.
this cross-sectional study utilized a self-administered questionnaire designed to assess the empathy measured by the Jefferson Scale of Empathy-Health Professions Student version, motives to study dentistry, dental specialty preferences among students of a dental school in Nigeria. Differences in mean empathy across gender, motives to study dentistry, and specialty preferences were analysed with t-test and ANOVA. P-values of <0.05 were considered significant.
a total of 211 students participated fully in the study with a mean age of 21.19 years ± 2.43 and 140 (66.4%) females. Personal interest (27.0%) and failure of admission to other undergraduate programmes (20.9%) were the top two motives for studying dentistry. Oral and maxillofacial surgery (OMFS) was the most preferred specialty (44.1%) and community dentistry and periodontology were the least preferred (2.8%) respectively. The total mean empathy score was 104.06 ± 19.1. The highest empathy score for motivation was for high income from dentistry (112.33 ± 13.34). The participants who preferred paediatric dentistry had the highest empathy score (108.73 ± 13.68).
knowledge of the empathy levels, the motivation for studying dentistry, and preferences for particular specialties may encourage trainers to ensure the development of a positive attitude among dental students that is professional and empathetic.
牙科培训旨在培养有敬业精神和同理心的牙医，为患者提供以口腔为中心的医疗保健，并提高生活质量。本研究旨在评估牙科学生的学习动机、专业偏好以及按动机和专业偏好划分的同理心得分。
本横断面研究采用了自我管理问卷，旨在评估尼日利亚一所牙科学校的学生的同理心（通过 Jefferson 同理心量表-健康专业学生版进行测量）、学习牙科的动机、牙科专业偏好。使用 t 检验和 ANOVA 分析了性别、学习牙科的动机和专业偏好对同理心均值的差异。P 值<0.05 被认为具有统计学意义。
共有 211 名学生完全参与了研究，平均年龄为 21.19 岁±2.43 岁，其中 140 名（66.4%）为女性。对口腔颌面外科（OMFS）的兴趣（27.0%）和无法被其他本科课程录取（20.9%）是学习牙科的前两大动机。口腔颌面外科是最受欢迎的专业（44.1%），社区牙科和牙周病学是最不受欢迎的专业（分别为 2.8%）。总平均同理心得分为 104.06±19.1。从牙科获得高收入的动机具有最高的同理心得分（112.33±13.34）。选择儿科牙科的参与者具有最高的同理心得分（108.73±13.68）。
了解同理心水平、学习牙科的动机以及对特定专业的偏好，可能会鼓励培训师确保牙科学生培养出专业和富有同理心的积极态度。
