Gurtmann Sonja, Schwahn Christian, Krüger Markus, Janowitz Deborah, Pilz Kristin, Biffar Reiner, Grabe Hans-J, Söhnel Andreas
Department of Prosthodontics, Gerodontology and Biomaterials, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Department of Psychiatry and Psychotherapy, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
Eur J Dent Educ. 2024 Feb;28(1):251-258. doi: 10.1111/eje.12942. Epub 2023 Aug 7.
The number of mentally altered patients a dentist meets in practice is increasing and interaction with them can be very challenging. As a baseline for an interventional study, we want to assess the attitude of dental students and identify areas of improvement in patient communication. This work compares the attitude of dental students towards people suffering from dementia to the attitudes of trained medical caregivers and the general population. Our aim is to use the results to assess the need for training in communicating with mentally altered patients.
Fourth-year dental students attended two lectures on dementia given by a psychiatrist as part of the geriatric dentistry lecture and were questioned afterwards using the Dementia Attitude Scale. In 2016 and 2017, 73 students at the University of Greifswald were interviewed. The response rate was 84%. Using a factor analysis, the Dementia Attitude Scale's validated questions were interpreted and compared with data from nursing staff from Switzerland and the USA.
The factor analysis of the data showed the same two-factor loadings as the comparative groups, and that dental students' attitude is more comparable to the general population than to medically trained nursing staff.
Given the results, we conclude that the implementation of a communication module can serve in improving the attitude of dental students towards patients with dementia.
牙医在临床实践中遇到的精神状态改变的患者数量正在增加，与他们进行互动可能极具挑战性。作为一项干预性研究的基线，我们希望评估牙科学生的态度，并确定在患者沟通方面需要改进的领域。这项工作将牙科学生对痴呆症患者的态度与训练有素的医疗护理人员和普通人群的态度进行了比较。我们的目的是利用这些结果来评估在与精神状态改变的患者沟通方面的培训需求。
作为老年牙科学讲座的一部分，四年级牙科学生参加了由精神科医生举办的两场关于痴呆症的讲座，之后使用痴呆症态度量表进行了问卷调查。2016年和2017年，对格赖夫斯瓦尔德大学的73名学生进行了访谈。回复率为84%。通过因子分析，对痴呆症态度量表中经过验证的问题进行了解释，并与来自瑞士和美国的护理人员的数据进行了比较。
数据的因子分析显示出与比较组相同的两因子负荷，并且牙科学生的态度与普通人群更为相似，而非与受过医学训练的护理人员相似。
鉴于这些结果，我们得出结论，实施一个沟通模块有助于改善牙科学生对痴呆症患者的态度。
