A Competency‐Based Framework for Training in Advanced Dental Education: Experience in a Community‐Based Dental Partnership Program

Abstract

While goals and objectives are useful to assess programmatic outcomes, they are not able to evaluate individual trainees' performance and/or corrective actions needed to improve performance. As a result, competency-based evaluation is increasingly being used to assess trainee performance at both the doctoral and postdoctoral levels. However, the translation of broadly stated competency statements into evaluable action statements continues to pose a challenge, especially in nontechnical domains such as the assessment and integration of cultural and sociodemographic variables in the development and execution of treatment plans. This article describes a process used to develop a competency-based framework that includes speciic evaluable action statements to assess the performance of Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents providing dental care services to medically compromised patients in a community-based partnership program.

An Innovative HIV Training Program for Dental Students

“…A separate study could also be done to identify additional competencies that are appropriate for predoctoral students working with PLWHA as well as how such competencies could be measured. The development of such a competency‐based framework for the training of residents in an Advanced Education in General Dentistry program who will work with PLWHA was discussed by Badner et al 20 …”

Dental Students’ Clinical Experience Across Three Successive Curricula at One U.S. Dental School

“…Like many U.S. dental schools over the last 25 years, the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) School of Dentistry has employed various clinical curricula to ensure students obtain adequate clinical experience and attain required competencies for graduation. Dental schools have introduced such innovative curriculum and assessment formats as comprehensive care, 1 – 6 case completion, 7 , 8 competency examinations, 9 – 12 portfolios, 13 , 14 and community‐based, off‐campus externships 15 – 17 . UCSF has had three major clinical curricular changes since 1992, moving from a discipline‐based curriculum to a comprehensive care curriculum to a procedural requirement curriculum plus externships.…”

AEGD Programs: Why Now, Why More?

“…Additionally, there is general agreement that exposure to patients requiring more complicated procedures helps a clinician become more comfortable performing these skills, particularly those that demand a higher level of precision 9 , 16 . A study by Badner et al describes how the performance of AEGD residents providing dental care services to medically compromised patients in a community‐based partnership program, in conjunction with a competency‐based evaluation process, led to clinicians better trained to treat these patients 17 . Columbia University College of Dental Medicine has developed a service‐learning program for use in the training of AEGD residents that emphasizes the role of the health professional within the community 18 .…”