Leite Taiana C, Wankiiri-Hale Christine R, Shah Nilesh H, Vasquez Camille S, Pavlowski Emily M, Koury Sarah E, Kim Jia, Ceravolo Kristina M, Weinberg Seth M, Horvath Zsuzsa
Department of Oral and Craniofacial Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Department of Restorative Dentistry and Comprehensive Care, School of Dental Medicine, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2025 Apr 15;20(4):e0321494. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0321494. eCollection 2025.
The goal of this study was to gain student-centered insights to better understand the challenges of transitioning from undergraduate to dental education. To this end, questionnaires were designed and distributed to incoming dental students, as well as second-, third-, and fourth-year students in the same year for a cross-sectional assessment in 2015/2016. The same questionnaires were also distributed to those same incoming students when they were in their second, third, and fourth years for a longitudinal assessment (2015-2019). There were both open-ended and Likert scale-type questions about expectations (incoming students) and experiences (years 2-4) in dental school compared to undergraduate education. Accordingly, data analysis involved a combination of qualitative and quantitative statistical approaches. Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses showed that incoming students expected an increased workload in dental school, but also more attention, support, and access to faculty than they received as undergraduates (i.e., they expected a stronger academic support system). All students also reported experiencing more stress and greater difficulty managing their time than expected when compared to their undergraduate experiences. Thus, our study highlights areas of discrepancy between dental students' initial expectations and their lived experience. Importantly, dental schools can take measures to address these discrepancies, foster a better learning environment, and improve students' overall experience to help pave a smooth path for students to become successful and well-prepared oral health care providers.
本研究的目的是获得以学生为中心的见解，以更好地理解从本科教育过渡到牙科教育的挑战。为此，设计了问卷并分发给即将入学的牙科学生，以及同年的二、三、四年级学生，以便在2015/2016年进行横断面评估。同样的问卷也在这些即将入学的学生进入二、三、四年级时发放，用于纵向评估（2015 - 2019年）。问卷中有关于牙科学校期望（即将入学的学生）和经历（二至四年级）与本科教育相比的开放式和李克特量表式问题。相应地，数据分析涉及定性和定量统计方法的结合。横断面和纵向分析表明，即将入学的学生预计牙科学校的工作量会增加，但他们也期望得到比本科时更多的关注、支持以及与教师的接触机会（即他们期望有一个更强的学术支持系统）。与本科经历相比，所有学生还报告称，他们实际体验到的压力更大，时间管理难度也比预期更大。因此，我们的研究突出了牙科学生最初期望与实际经历之间的差异领域。重要的是，牙科学校可以采取措施来解决这些差异，营造更好的学习环境，改善学生的整体体验，以帮助为学生成为成功且准备充分的口腔医疗服务提供者铺平道路。
