National Service Scheme (NSS) Training in dental education: Assessment of self reported empathy and clinical performance.

Background: To compare self-reported empathy scores, clinical performance between National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers and non-volunteers in dental schools; and to predict clinical performance score using self-reported empathy score.

Material and methods: A cross sectional survey of 336 undergraduates from 16 dental schools in Andhra Pradesh state, India was conducted using Google forms. The questionnaire was divided into four sections. Section A consists of a single question asking whether a graduate is a NSS volunteer or not. Section B consisted of Jefferson Scale of Empathy Health Profession Students' Version (JSPE-HPS) with 20 items based on a 7-point Likert scale. Section C was designed to investigate students' self-confidence in performing 35 clinical procedures on a 5-point Likert scale. Section D gathered information related to clinical exam score in external practical assessment during final year. The data collected were subjected to appropriate statistical tests.

Results: The JSPE-HPS score between NSS volunteers (91.52+7.35) and non-volunteers (76.21+5.42) was significantly different. The overall self-reported clinical score was 3.57+.34 and 3.08+.43 for NSS volunteers and non-volunteers respectively (p=0.000). Also, the mean clinical performance score was higher for NSS volunteers (501.15+53.97) compared to non-volunteers (445.03+34.94). The JSPE-HPS scoreswere positively associated with clinical performance scores (r=0.559). Furthermore, we discovered that JSPE-HPS scoresignificantly predicted clinical exam score (β = 2.959, p< .000).

Conclusions: NSS training enabled dental undergraduate students acquire empathy and clinical skills during their education. Key words:Clinical Skills, Dental Education, Empathy, National Service SchemeCare Team.