Division of Dental Hygiene, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, University of Minnesota School of Dentistry, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2023 Jun;87(6):755-763. doi: 10.1002/jdd.13198. Epub 2023 Mar 17.
The COVID-19 pandemic forced dental educators to quickly modify the teaching-learning platform without testing outcomes of alternative teaching methods prior to implementation. One critical course affected was the teaching of local anesthesia (LA) that moved from practicing injections using the traditional student-to-student method to the simulation model using manikins.
This study compared two LA teaching methods (student-to-student versus simulation) in two consecutive cohorts before and during the pandemic to assess differences in students' skill level and self-confidence.
This quasi-experimental study recruited a convenience sample of dental hygiene students at the University of Minnesota during 2020 and 2021. Consent was collected prior to student-to-student injection practice and survey distribution. Data collected were clinical and summative clinical assessments to determine LA skill level, and student surveys to assess self-confidence. Analyses included descriptive statistics, linear models within and between cohorts, and inductive analysis for qualitative survey responses.
Fifty of 57 students (88%) completed the survey, and 54 (95%) consented access to their clinical assessments. Skill level was significantly higher for the simulation cohort compared to the student-to-student cohort on the LA summative clinical assessment (59.0 vs. 55.6, p = 0.004). No differences were found in self-confidence between cohorts. A positive association was found between students' self-confidence and skill levels for both cohorts, but only student-to-student cohort results were statistically significant (student-to-student: r = 0.44, p = 0.02; simulation: r = 0.24, p = 0.26).
Results support incorporating simulation manikin teaching methods for LA with a student-to-student partner component.
新冠疫情迫使牙科教育工作者迅速修改教学平台，而在实施之前并未测试替代教学方法的效果。受影响的一门重要课程是局部麻醉（LA）教学，教学方式从传统的学生对学生练习转变为使用模拟人进行注射练习。
本研究在疫情前后连续两批学生中比较了两种 LA 教学方法（学生对学生与模拟），以评估学生技能水平和自信心的差异。
这项准实验研究招募了明尼苏达大学的牙科卫生学生作为便利样本，于 2020 年和 2021 年进行。在学生对学生注射练习和问卷调查前收集同意书。收集的数据包括临床和总结性临床评估以确定 LA 技能水平，以及学生调查以评估自信心。分析包括描述性统计、队列内和队列间的线性模型以及定性调查回复的归纳分析。
57 名学生中有 50 名（88%）完成了调查，有 54 名（95%）同意访问他们的临床评估。在 LA 总结性临床评估中，模拟组的技能水平显著高于学生对学生组（59.0 与 55.6，p=0.004）。两组之间的自信心没有差异。两个队列的学生自信心与技能水平呈正相关，但只有学生对学生队列的结果具有统计学意义（学生对学生：r=0.44，p=0.02；模拟：r=0.24，p=0.26）。
结果支持将模拟人教学方法与学生对学生伙伴教学方法相结合，用于 LA 教学。
