Attitudes of Dental Interns Towards Learning Communication Skills in Alexandria University

Abstract

INTRODUCTION: Effective communication not only improves dentist-patient relationships, but also enhances the patient's satisfaction towards the profession. Dental students are generally receptive to learning communication skills during their academic education and their appreciation for the value of these skills can be significantly improved with training. OBJECTIVES: The objective of this study was to compare the attitudes of dental interns towards learning communication skills at both Faculty of Dentistry Alexandria University (public) and Pharos University (private). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study using a s questionnaire was carried out among dental interns graduated from the Faculty of Dentistry of Alexandria University (AU) and Pharos University (PU), in 2014. A self-administered, twenty-four-items, Dental Communication Skills Attitude Scale (DCSAS) that contained both positive (PAS) and negative (NAS) attitude subscales was distributed. Participants' demographic and education related variables were also recorded. Association of the positive and negative attitudes with these variables was determined using appropriate statistical tests as Pearson's chi square test, Monte Carlo Exact test, Fisher's Exact and one way ANOVA. RESULTS: A total of 240 dental interns from Alexandria University and 162 dental interns from Pharos University participated in the study, with a response rate of 70.59% and 82.65%, respectively. The mean PAS scores and NAS scores in both universities were almost the same, 52/65 and 31/55, respectively with no significant difference between them. These attitudes were significantly associated with certain background and education-related attributes as gender, age, parents education and previous communication skills training. CONCLUSIONS: Despite the differences in communication skills curriculum, dental interns of both AU and PU had an overall positive and neutral attitude towards communication skills learning with no statistical significant difference between them.

Dental Students’ Attitudes toward Learning Communication Skills: A Cross-Sectional Study

“…This is in accordance with the results of a study conducted in Nepal on a sample of medical students which found no statistically significant relationship between gender and positive attitudes towards learning communication skills (Shankar et al, 2013). However, this was in contrast to the earlier study conducted by (Atteya et al, 2017) where they found that female interns had higher PAS scores than male interns. Roter and Hall (Roter & Hall, 1998)explained the effect of gender on the physician-to-patient relationship as that may be because the art of communication originates more naturally from a female, so she may be more likely to appreciate the importance of physician to patient communication.…”

“…This is very similar to Richa et al, 2016(Richa et al, 2016 where they reported scores of 50.44 ± 5.83 and 29.72 ± 4.32, respectively. These results are also in accordance with a study conducted in Alexandria in Egypt evaluating the dental interns' attitudes toward learning communication skills where the mean PAS score was 52/65 (Atteya et al, 2017). For individual questions, an average score of more than 2.5 out of 5 on the Likert scale indicated a trend whether the students were against or with the question.…”

Emotional Intelliigence Among Alexandria University Dental Interns

“…It is noted that these two subscales construct the social skills branch of a person's whole EI (1). A recent study in 2016, in Alexandria University, by Atteya et al (30), reported that dental interns showed positive attitudes towards learning communication skills, it was also noticed that students have been learning communication skills through lectures incorporated into their dental public health curriculum; this could have taught them how to manage people's emotions through effective communications. Moreover, during the clinical years of study, participants might have experienced handling patients who were anxious or in pain, and this could have enhanced their awareness of people's emotions in addition to managing them at such emotionally stressful situation.…”

Attitudes of Dentist Towards Communication Skills Learning

“…A study on dental interns reported that females and those with training in communication skills were associated with positive attitudes towards learning communication skills [9]. Another study concluded that dentists, patients, and students contemplate professional communication skills are important in the dentist-patient relationship [10].…”