Journal of Dental Education最新文献

Introduction: Little literature exists on graduates' application to practice for explicit critical thinking skills learned in dental school.

Purposes: Discern the (1) degree to which graduates apply explicit critical thinking skillsets in practice; (2) degree of adaptation of critical thinking skillsets to practice; (3) frequency of use for critical thinking skillsets in practice; and (4) perceptions to improve critical thinking learning guidance in dental school.

Methods: Five critical thinking exercises/skillsets were selected that had been in place over 5 years with at least one paper: geriatrics, treatment planning, technology decision making, ethics, evidence-based dentistry; each followed concepts from an emulation model in critical thinking. Electronic survey administered in 2023/2024 to alumni graduated in the last 5 years.

Results: Of 98 (from 320 distributed) returned, 56 completed the entire survey. Dental school experiences positively influenced use of critical thinking skills in practice. On a five-point scale, mostly 4s and 5s were reported for "…benefit your thinking." Fifty-three percent reported "using ideas from the exercise and developed my own thought processes," 35% reported "using the thought process largely as offered in the college" and 5% reported "do not use the exercise." Sixty percent reported using the skillsets hourly or daily. With minor variations all skillsets were reported positively for use in practice.

Conclusions: A positive influence of critical thinking skills was gained from the college experience with explicit positive impact for each of the five critical thinking experiences. The questions may be a model for future follow-up studies of explicit dental school critical thinking exercises.

Objective: This study's purpose was to determine if the learning environment impacts student anxiety in a dental hygiene program by evaluating the two main learning environments: the dental clinic and the traditional classroom. This study also examined educational tasks and their association with anxiety in each learning environment.

Methods: A web-based survey was conducted using a convenience sample of dental hygiene students enrolled in a two or four year CODA-accredited dental hygiene program in the United States. The Beck Anxiety Inventory was used to determine each participant's anxiety levels in both learning environments. Data analysis included descriptive statistics, correlation, and an analysis of variance.

Results: According to the Beck Anxiety Inventory scoring, dental hygiene students experience a moderate level of anxiety when learning in the dental clinic and a low level of anxiety when learning in the classroom. Nervousness was the most reported anxiety symptom in both the dental clinic and the traditional classroom. Test results from the Spearman correlation show that all dental clinic and classroom educational tasks have a significant correlation (p < 0.01) to a student's anxiety level. Anxiety reported by students did not statistically differ by the year in which they were in the dental hygiene program.

Conclusion: Findings suggest anxiety does exist at a moderate level in dental hygiene students. The dental clinic learning environment is associated with greater anxiety among dental hygiene students. Results from this study will be beneficial in understanding how to facilitate student success in a dental hygiene program.

Purpose: This study compared the person-centered approach alone and incorporated the mentor-protégé model to assess differences in self-efficacy, clinical skill acquisition, and anxiety/stress levels.

Methods: This quasi-experimental study recruited a convenience sample of dental hygiene students at New York University during the 2022-2023 academic year. The dental hygiene students who were taught through traditional methods only (control group) and those who experienced the mentor-protégé approach (intervention group) were compared. Data was collected from participants through anonymous surveys at the beginning and conclusion of the academic year. Additional information was gathered from the comparison group through a focus group.

Results: Participants from both groups responded favorably in measurements of self-efficacy. However, the comparison group had a significant increase in their self-rated ability to work independently (p = 0.008989). Changes in perceived clinical skill acquisition were not statistically significant, except for improvement in patient communication for the comparison group (p = 0.0197). The control group's anxiety/stress decreased by 12.5% (p = 0.0755) and the comparison group's anxiety/stress levels reduced by 28.3% (p = 0.0646) in the general clinics. The clinical course failing rate for the control group in fall 2022 semester was 9%, and the intervention group at 0%; no clinical course failures occurred in either group for Spring 2023 semester. There was a 100% passing rate achieved on the clinical board exam by both groups.

Conclusions: Implementing the mentor-protégé model in dental hygiene education enhances students' clinical learning experiences and aids in practice readiness.