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Outreach clinical dental education: the Portsmouth experience – a 4‐year follow‐up study
Author(s) -
Radford D. R.,
Holmes S.,
Dunne S. M.,
Woolford M. J.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
european journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.583
H-Index - 41
eISSN - 1600-0579
pISSN - 1396-5883
DOI - 10.1111/eje.12153
Subject(s) - outreach , medicine , medical education , nursing , psychology , family medicine , law , political science
Background The P ortsmouth D ental A cademy ( UPDA ) was opened in S eptember 2010 and was a development from the highly successful S chool of P rofessionals C omplementary to D entistry (2004–2010). The aim of the A cademy was to provide integrated team education for all dental professionals in a primary care setting. The dental students are on outreach from K ing's C ollege L ondon, and the dental care professional students are registered at the U niversity of P ortsmouth. Objectives To evaluate the dental students response to the residential outreach educational experience at the UPDA . Methods A 49‐item questionnaire divided into nine domains that provided both qualitative data and quantitative data were administered at the end of the longitudinal 10‐week placement, to four successive cohorts of students in 2010–2014. Results A 95% return rate was achieved. Students valued highly the quality of the clinical teaching. Through their experience, they felt they understood fully the role of the dentist in care planning in primary care and felt well prepared for dental foundation training. This educational success is unpinned with successful maintenance factors including a well‐organised induction period and giving the students a sense of belongingness, empowerment and autonomy for their personal development as new graduates. Conclusion Within the limitations of the questionnaire study over the 4‐year period, the students were very positive about all the aspects of this residential outreach education at the UPDA but particularly valued the immersion in clinical dentistry and the bridging from dental school to their dental foundation training.