European Journal of Dental Education最新文献

Introduction: This study sought to explore dental students' perceptions of their clinical learning experience through the use of similes and metaphors in order to provide useful insights for clinical teaching.

Materials and methods: 69 dental students in their clinical years (4th, 5th and 6th) participated in this study by responding to an online survey from February to April 2023 at the Toulouse University Hospital Centre. The sentence they were asked to complete concerning their clinical learning was 'To be a clinical dental student in 2023 is…'. A thematic analysis of free-text responses was conducted to generate themes reflecting the perceptions of students.

Results: The students perceived their clinical studies as a long and difficult journey, requiring adaptability, resilience, and endurance to face complex or uncomfortable situations. Their environment was often perceived as hostile, and their clinical development as a battle. However, they also recognised that this difficult learning process was an investment in their future, with the hope of bringing smiles to patients' faces.

Conclusion: This study allowed dental students to express their views on their clinical learning experience, and students should have more opportunities to influence their learning through feedback. In a dental course, the arts can serve as a powerful tool for diagnosing learning and teaching problems and to express emotions, which can have a positive impact on professional growth.

Introduction: Special Care Dentistry (SCD) calls for the use of a diversified workforce to improve the oral care of patients. Previous studies have found that there is a lack of postgraduate education for groups such as dental therapists; however, interest in education from this group is expressed. The present study seeks to find the views of university educators regarding the provision of postgraduate education in Special Care Dentistry for dental therapists in the United Kingdom.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 11 university educators. Transcripts were analysed thematically using an inductive approach. Categories were identified within the themes relating to specific sub-questions posed by the study.

Results: Postgraduate education in Special Care Dentistry for dental therapists is a potentially worthwhile endeavour. Participants suggested that this might result in an improved service for patients and would expand postgraduate opportunities for dental therapists that have been lacking. Participants acknowledged there are financial and logistical barriers to the development of a postgraduate course, especially one that cannot guarantee a large uptake of dental therapists.

Conclusions: Postgraduate education in Special Care Dentistry for dental therapists should be considered for development. This study supports recommendations in existing literature and provides insight into an improved, diversified workforce in Special Care Dentistry.

Introduction: A high frequency of mental issues has been reported amongst dental students in recent years. The aim of this study was to explore the frequency of depression, stress, and anxiety amongst undergraduate dental students in a developing country and identify factors which may contribute to the poor mental health of dental students.

Materials and methods: After obtaining ethical approval, undergraduate dental students from 14 dental institutions were invited to participate in an online study. Data were collected using two globally validated scales for screening mental health. The survey inventory also included two open-ended items and was administered using Google forms.

Results: Complete responses were received from 639 participants, which included 71.67% (n = 458) females and 28.33% (n = 181) males. The overall response rate was 43%. The modal age group was 18-21-year-olds (63.54%, n = 406), followed by 22-25-year-olds (35.52%, n = 227). The mean score on PHQ-9 was 10.37 (SD ± 6.13) and 48.67% of participants showed moderate to severe depression. The mean DASS-21 score was 20.81 (SD ± 14.64) and 48.21% of participants were screened positively for moderate to extremely severe depression, 49.30% for moderate to extremely severe anxiety, and 30.36% of participants showed features of moderate to extremely severe stress. Significantly positive correlations were observed for the whole sample and demographic factors for participant scores on PHQ-9 for Depression, and Depression, Anxiety, and Stress scores on DASS-21. Academic workload, social interactions, personal factors, academic environment, and financial difficulties were reported as the main causes of poor mental health.

Discussion: This study shows a high prevalence of depression, anxiety, and stress amongst undergraduate dental students in a country with a unique socio-cultural landscape. The study also identified underlying factors which adversely affect the mental health of dental students and provides recommendations to address these challenges.

Introduction: Dentists' empathy for patients is associated with enhanced patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes, and with reduced patient anxiety and dentist burnout. Cognitive empathy has been distinguished from emotional empathy, but how these broad types are expressed within the dentist-patient relationship has not been explored. The purpose of this study is to further differentiate types of empathy expressions in routine dental visits.

Materials and methods: Third-year students (n = 80) treated standardised patients (n = 11) portraying one of two patient profiles, each of which had multiple treatment needs in addition to a major systemic health problem: cancer or rheumatoid arthritis. After each visit, the patients completed assessment rubrics which included opportunities to comment on performance on four skillsets: visit initiation, patient interviewing, treatment planning and global communication. These comments were qualitatively content analysed. Comments (n = 301) were first deductively coded for valence (positive vs. negative evaluation) and empathy type (cognitive vs. emotional). Subsequently, comments were inductively coded for subtypes.

Results: Three subtypes of cognitive empathy were identified in patient comments: facilitating comprehension, resolving treatment barriers and relieving physical discomfort. Five types of emotional empathy were identified: comforting emotionally, validating, sympathising, encouraging and inspiring confidence. Unexpectedly, four subtypes emerged which could not definitively be classified as exclusively cognitive or emotional, so a hybrid type was identified for these subtypes: respecting, moderating, attending and destigmatizing.

Conclusion: Patients distinguish subtypes of cognitive and emotional empathy, but some hybrid expressions are powerful because they simultaneously convey both types of empathy.

Introduction: A learning by concordance (LbC) tool including 33 vignettes was developed jointly by teachers from the Y and the University of X to train undergraduate dental students in paediatric dental traumatology. The aim of this work was to present a learning tool not yet described in the community of dental educators. The method was presented on two different electronic platforms to two groups of students. Different modalities were compared.

Methodology: International panellists were asked to detail their reasoning for resolving ambiguous or complex situations described in clinical vignettes. Two groups were approached: a first group composed of students new to LbC (Y group) and a second group that had already experienced this type of learning method (X group). The modalities of training management differed according to the groups: Y group used the Wooclap platform and responded on a 5-modality Likert scale, while X group used Moodle and a 3-modality Likert scale. Student volunteers were able to complete a qualitative survey about the training. The main indicator used was students' opinions and feelings about different aspects of the tool.

Results: The training was completed by 121 students, 53 of whom agreed to give their opinion on the tool. Consistent with current knowledge, we found that novices had difficulty answering a 5-modality Likert scale because of the subtle difference between two close answers.

Conclusion: This is the first study to introduce a LbC tool in dental education and the results showed a strong interest in this type of pedagogical tool, regardless of the online platform used.

Aims: The Education Committee of the European Academy of DentoMaxilloFacial Radiology should 'encourage and support high levels of graduate and postgraduate education in dentomaxillofacial radiology (DMFR) all over Europe'. For this reason, the committee aimed to formulate a document describing resources allocated for undergraduate education within oral radiology in Europe today that can serve as a benchmark against which dental schools and/or countries with dentistry programmes can relate their undergraduate education.

Materials and methods: A questionnaire addressing resources allocated for learning oral radiology was distributed to colleagues involved in oral radiology education in 117 dental schools in 29 countries in Europe.

Results: The answers represent approximately 13% of the dental schools in 40% of the countries providing dental education in Europe. There was a large variation regarding qualifications among teachers. There were also large differences in reported time dedicated to oral radiology courses, within some parts the allocated time differed by a factor 16.

Discussion: An ambition to achieve high standards in oral radiology all over Europe should, based on the results of this survey, start with an effort to attain consensus regarding the role of oral radiology in dental education. The involvement of dentists with DMFR specialist training, would support high levels of undergraduate education.

Conclusion: The results of this survey include information that educators and authorities can relate to in planning and implementation of new or revised curriculum. The ambition should be to increase teachers' competence and to work towards more harmonised and extensive courses in oral radiology.

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic prompted a rapid shift towards remote learning in dental education, influencing practicing dentists' work-life balance (WLB). This German nationwide questionnaire study, conducted in September 2022, aimed to explore the impact of transitioning to remote learning on the WLB of dentists, considering factors such as gender, parental status and professional roles.

Methods: A voluntary and anonymous online survey involving 672 dentists utilised the 'Trier Short Scale for Measuring Work-Life Balance' (TKS-WLB). Statistical analyses used R, employing descriptive statistics for metric variables and mixed models for group comparisons. Post hoc analyses utilised t-tests.

Results: Overall, participants reported an enhanced WLB post-transition. Gender disparities were observed, with men consistently experiencing better balance than women. The primary motivator for online training participation was the reduction of travel-related challenges, cited by 92% of respondents. Notably, 52.8% faced no issues with the transition, and 55.5% found online training to complement in-person events effectively. Women (71.8%) and participants with children (73.2%) expressed a preference for future asynchronous online training opportunities.

Conclusions: This study underscores the positive impact of remote learning on the WLB of dentists, extending beyond the pandemic's challenges. Innovative online training programs, particularly beneficial for women and those with family commitments, have the potential to reshape dental education.

Introduction: Young people, including dental students, generally have little experience with older people who suffer from multimorbidity with age-related functional and/or cognitive limitations. For this reason, the 'Gero-Parcours' (GP) as an educational instrument of multi-staging simulation teaching was developed for students to experience ageing and its limitation.

Materials and methods: The GP consists of different stations (e.g., hearing and visual impairments, teeth brushing by third-party cleaners, emotion), which are completed within 15 minutes each by two students at the same time supervised by an educated professional. Students' assessment of the GP at the University of Leipzig, Germany between 2021 and 2024 was evaluated by using written questionnaires.

Results: Student's experiences and perceptions of the GP highlighted its positive influence on their understanding of ageing. Most students stated that the course enriched their professional knowledge and dispelled misconceptions about ageing in patients. Some students expressed personal concerns about ageing. Students found the transfer from a wheelchair to a dental chair station most beneficial for their future work life, while the clinical nutrition station received the lowest rating.

Discussion: The GP illustrates ageing with its limitations. The students and supervisors appreciated this practical training. However, when planning a GP, it is necessary to provide the necessary resources for the course. Students from the higher years can also be recruited and trained as supervisors.

Conclusion: The GP can be easily adapted to the number of students and supervisors as well as to the time available. As the students found the GP to be a helpful educational instrument, the authors recommend including it as mandatory in the dental education curriculum.

Introduction: The introduction highlights the transformative impact of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) on higher education (HE), emphasising its potential to enhance student learning and instructor efficiency while also addressing significant challenges such as accuracy, privacy, and ethical concerns. By exploring the benefits and risks of AI integration, the introduction underscores the urgent need for evidence-based, inclusive, and adaptable frameworks to guide universities in leveraging GenAI responsibly and effectively in academic environments.

Aims: This paper presents a comprehensive process for developing cross-disciplinary and consensus-based guidelines, based on the latest evidence for the integration of GenAI at European University Cyprus (EUC). In response to the rapid adoption of AI tools such as LLMs in HE, a task group at EUC created a structured framework to guide the ethical and effective use of GenAI in academia, one that was intended to be flexible enough to incorporate new developments and not infringe on instructors' academic freedoms, while also addressing ethical and practical concerns.

Results: The framework development was informed by extensive literature reviews and consultations. Key pillars of the framework include: addressing the risks and opportunities presented by GenAI; promoting transparent communication; ensuring responsible use by students and educators; safeguarding academic integrity. The guidelines emphasise the balance between, on the one hand, leveraging AI to enhance educational experiences, and, on the other maintaining critical thinking and originality. The framework also includes practical recommendations for AI usage, classroom integration, and policy formulation, ensuring that AI augments rather than replaces human judgement in educational settings.

Conclusions: The iterative development process, including the use of GenAI tools for refining the guidelines, illustrates a hands-on approach to AI adoption in HE, and the resulting guidelines may serve as a model for other higher education institutions (HEIs) aiming to integrate AI tools while upholding educational quality and ethical standards.

Background: This study aimed to simulate diverse scenarios of students employing LLMs for CDLE examination preparation, providing a detailed evaluation of their performance in medical education.

Methods: A stratified random sampling strategy was implemented to select and subsequently revise 200 questions from the CDLE. Seven LLMs, recognised for their exceptional performance in the Chinese domain, were selected as test subjects. Three distinct testing scenarios were constructed: answering questions, explaining questions and adversarial testing. The evaluation metrics included accuracy, agreement rate and teaching effectiveness score. Wald χ² tests and Kruskal-Wallis tests were employed to determine whether the differences among the LLMs across various scenarios and before and after adversarial testing were statistically significant.

Results: The majority of the tested LLMs met the passing threshold on the CDLE benchmark, with Doubao-pro 32k and Qwen2-72b (81%) achieving the highest accuracy rates. Doubao-pro 32k demonstrated the highest 98% agreement rate with the reference answers when providing explanations. Although statistically significant differences existed among various LLMs in their teaching effectiveness scores based on the Likert scale, all these models demonstrated a commendable ability to deliver comprehensible and effective instructional content. In adversarial testing, GPT-4 exhibited the smallest decline in accuracy (2%, p = 0.623), while ChatGLM-4 demonstrated the least reduction in agreement rate (14.6%, p = 0.001).

Conclusions: LLMs trained on Chinese corpora, such as Doubao-pro 32k, demonstrated superior performance compared to GPT-4 in answering and explaining questions, with no statistically significant difference. However, during adversarial testing, all models exhibited diminished performance, with GPT-4 displaying comparatively greater robustness. Future research should further investigate the interpretability of LLM outputs and develop strategies to mitigate hallucinations generated in medical education.