Szönyi Valérie, Marquillier Thomas, Tenenbaum Annabelle, Blaizot Alessandra
Hospices Civils de Lyon, Dental Consultation and Treatment Services, 6-8 Place Deperet, Lyon, 69007, France.
University Claude Bernard Lyon 1, UFR Odontology, Public Health department, Lyon, France.
BMC Med Educ. 2025 Jul 17;25(1):1073. doi: 10.1186/s12909-025-07664-z.
Soft skills are recognised as essential for dental practitioners, but their integration into dental education is inconsistent. The aim of this evidence and gap map was to explore the use of soft skills teaching initiatives in undergraduate dental education and to clarify the key domains in this research field.
An extensive search of studies from 2014 to 2024 on the PubMed database was carried out by four researchers. Inclusion criteria covered articles, including both advocacy or position papers, and studies reporting on implemented and evaluated educational interventions in soft skills in undergraduate dental education. The search is aligned with Joanna Briggs Institute and PRISMA-ScR guidelines and based on predefined coding frameworks from the literature.
From the 1,449 records initially identified, 317 were included after rigorous examination. There were generally more educational programme description or evaluation papers compared to advocacy articles. More than two-thirds of the included articles were published in pedagogy-focused journals. The papers were classified into four domains (i.e. dentist-patient relationship, cooperation, life balance and clinical reasoning), with most studies falling into the dentist-patient relationship and cooperation domains. Various graphic formats present the results (i.e. a visual map, radar charts, and a geographical map), which provides a comprehensive and accessible representation, thus aiding in the exploration of the identified themes, connections, and key domains in this research field.
This evidence and gap map represents an attempt to capture a picture of existing educational practises relating to soft skills in dentistry teaching and, thus, raise broader questions regarding how soft skills should contribute to redefining the role of dentistry for dentists, patients and society. However, integrating soft skills comes with various challenges, such as the training of educators, the standardisation of content and evaluations, and the development of research evaluating the impacts of soft skills teaching on dentists and patients. Ultimately, it would be beneficial to engage patients in defining the various curriculum items and prioritising the most relevant ones concerning soft skills. This collaborative approach would ensure that the educational content aligns with the needs of patients and helps address larger public health challenges.
软技能被认为是牙科从业者必不可少的能力，但它们在牙科教育中的整合并不一致。本证据与差距图的目的是探索本科牙科教育中软技能教学举措的使用情况，并阐明该研究领域的关键领域。
由四名研究人员对2014年至2024年PubMed数据库中的研究进行了广泛搜索。纳入标准涵盖文章，包括宣传或立场文件，以及报告本科牙科教育中软技能方面已实施和评估的教育干预措施的研究。该搜索符合乔安娜·布里格斯研究所和PRISMA-ScR指南，并基于文献中预先定义的编码框架。
从最初识别的1449条记录中，经过严格审查后纳入了317条。与宣传文章相比，教育项目描述或评估论文通常更多。超过三分之二的纳入文章发表在以教学法为重点的期刊上。这些论文被分为四个领域（即医患关系、合作、生活平衡和临床推理），大多数研究属于医患关系和合作领域。以各种图形格式呈现结果（即可视化地图、雷达图和地理地图），提供了全面且易于理解的展示，从而有助于探索该研究领域中确定的主题、联系和关键领域。
本证据与差距图试图描绘牙科教学中与软技能相关的现有教育实践情况，从而引发关于软技能应如何有助于重新定义牙科对牙医、患者和社会的作用的更广泛问题。然而，整合软技能面临各种挑战，例如教育工作者的培训、内容和评估的标准化，以及评估软技能教学对牙医和患者影响的研究的开展。最终，让患者参与定义各种课程项目并对与软技能最相关的项目进行优先排序将是有益的。这种协作方法将确保教育内容符合患者需求，并有助于应对更大的公共卫生挑战。
