Dental student perceptions on clinic supervision: A qualitative study

The integration of knowledge from basic sciences to clinical dentistry is an important learning process experienced by dentistry students. The entire process is facilitated by the faculty, officially recognized as the clinical supervisor. This research described student perceptions regarding clinical supervision in a Philippine dental school. This study used the qualitative method through focused group discussions (FGDs). For each FGD, the target sample size is six to ten participants. Guide questions were prepared. A facilitator who has a background in Master of Health Professions Education and prior experience in facilitating was requested to conduct the FGD proceedings. Audio recording was used and the minutes were transcribed to facilitate analysis and sent to the facilitator and participants after 1 week for validation. Five FGDs consisting of six students each were conducted to probe on students’ perception of clinical supervision. In total, 30 students participated. Most were female junior students. The first theme which arose from the student perceptions was the lack of time due to the high faculty-student ratio. A second theme which arose was that certain faculty traits affect students’ perceptions of clinical supervision. Faculty characteristics which affected them positively were patience, approachability, and fairness. Faculty characteristic which affected them negatively was preferential treatment or favoritism that they see in the clinics. Students mentioned faculty traits of patience, approachability, and fairness as positive traits in a clinical supervisor. On the other hand, students agreed that the general lack of time due to the faculty-student ratio made it difficult for the faculty to allot sufficient attention to each student.