Preparedness of recent dental graduates and final-year undergraduate dental students for practice amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
Introduction Dental education involves performing clinical procedures on patients under expert supervision. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine face-to-face teaching-learning-assessment dynamics world over. This study assessed the self-perceived preparedness of dental undergraduate students...
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
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John Wiley and Sons Inc
2023
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://eprints.um.edu.my/39587/ |
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| Summary: | Introduction Dental education involves performing clinical procedures on patients under expert supervision. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted routine face-to-face teaching-learning-assessment dynamics world over. This study assessed the self-perceived preparedness of dental undergraduate students for practice, whose clinical training was interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic from dental schools across Malaysia. Materials and Methods This cross-sectional web-based questionnaire survey was done among new dental graduates of the academic year 2019-2020 and the final year undergraduate students (academic year 2020-2021) from dental schools in Malaysia, using the Dental Undergraduates Preparedness Assessment Scale (DU-PAS), from 6th to 26th April 2021. The questionnaire addressed clinical skill competence, and cognitive and behavioral attributes. The number of respondents needed to achieve a confidence level of 95% with margin of error of 5% was 306. Results A total of 453 (243 final year students and 210 new graduates) responded from dental schools nationwide, with a response rate of 30.6%. The overall mean score for preparedness for dental practice was 76.3 +/- 14.7, for clinical skills 39.7 +/- 7.3, and behavioral and cognitive attributes 36.5 +/- 9.1. New graduates had significantly higher mean preparedness score (78.6 +/- 14.4) as compared to students in their final year (74.2 +/- 14.7). Performing endodontic treatment on multi-rooted teeth had the lowest perceived competency (29.8%), followed by assessing treatment needs of patients requiring orthodontics (37.1%), prescribing drugs (46.6%) and providing crowns using principles of tooth preservation (48.1%). Conclusions Satisfactory scores were obtained for most attributes. The final-year cohort was significantly less prepared for dental practice compared to the newly graduated cohort. |
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