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Dental students’ self‐perceived communication skills for patient motivation
Author(s) -
Rindlisbacher F.,
Davis J. M.,
Ramseier C. A.
Publication year - 2017
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.12196
Subject(s) - competence (human resources) , curriculum , communication skills , medicine , visual analogue scale , oral hygiene , patient care , family medicine , psychology , medical education , dentistry , nursing , physical therapy , social psychology , pedagogy
Abstract Aims The aim of this study was to evaluate dental students’ self‐perceived communication skills for patient motivation over the course of their training. Materials and methods Pre‐clinical and clinical dental students at the University of Bern School of Dental Medicine were surveyed annually from 2008 to 2011 utilising a written questionnaire. Self‐reported data were pooled from all classes per time‐point in the curriculum. Results A total of 157 students were surveyed from five classes with an overall response rate of 94.8%. A total of 393 questionnaires were available for analysis. The self‐perceived skill‐sets for general patient care and patient communication were rated at the end of the first clinical year with mean Visual Analog Scale values of 75.0 ± 1.6 and 75.1 ± 1.5, respectively. During the second clinical year, the self‐perceived skills increased in both patient care (82.5 ± 1.2, P = 0.0004) and patient communication (81.4 ± 1.4, P = 0.0034). The students rated their competence higher when providing oral hygiene instructions as opposed to motivating patients to quit tobacco use, modify their diet or employ stress‐reduction strategies ( P < 0.005). At the end of the pre‐clinical year, 74.5% of the students expressed interest in receiving more extensive communication training ( P < 0.004). Conclusions Though dental students in this study demonstrated a steady increase in their level of comfort motivating patients to utilise oral hygiene instructions, they also expressed the desire for more motivational training early in their curriculum. Therefore, these results may indicate the need to enhance communications training in patient motivation on all behavioural aspects early in the dental curriculum.