Attitudes Towards Shared Learning of Trainee Dental Technicians and Undergraduate Dental Students

Abstract

The challenges of health care are increasingly complex and subject to frequent change. Meeting these demands requires that health professionals work in partnership with each other and the patient. One way of contributing to this is for students to learn together. However, effective teamwork requires an education system that helps to foster understanding among all those entering the health workforce. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitudes towards shared learning of undergraduate dental students and trainee dental technicians in a university dental school/hospital in the United Kingdom. Twenty-ive trainee dental technicians and 75 undergraduate dental students took part in the study over ive academic years. Data were collected using structured questionnaires. A 100% response rate was achieved from the questionnaires. The results indicated the majority of students recognized the beneits of shared learning and viewed the acquisition of teamworking skills as useful for their future working lives, beneicial to the care of their patients, and likely to enhance professional working relationships. The study also found a positive association of being valued as an individual in the dental team by all student groups. Future dental curricula should provide opportunities to develop effective communication between these two groups and encourage teamworking opportunities. These opportunities need to be systematically developed in the dental curriculum to achieve the desired goals.

Intraprofessional education with dental hygienists: The post training impact on dentists

“…7,12 It is suggested by Brooks and Gorman (2017) that IntraPE can cause role-blurring of professional identities between assumed roles and a hierarchy of responsibilities. Role-blurring has been perceived as positive or negative, 11 but the majority of current research supports early educational intervention of IntraPE or IPE to prevent silo identities, which can create persistent negative stereotypes toward other professionals. 3,[15][16][17] This can enhance care by sharing workloads among health professionals and allowing team members to learn new skills.…”

“…The IntraPE curriculum in this study was primarily didactic with limited clinical interaction. Multiple studies between dental and DH students have shown participants desire more collaborative clinical time, 8,11 that clinical IntraPE is more effective than didactic learning, 2,6,13 and clinical IntraPE is the superior method to help students understand the roles and responsibilities of other health professionals. 6,24…”

“…The views expressed by participants in this study, who had primarily didactic and minimal clinical IntraPE, align with the thinking IntraPE has positive impact on attitudes toward teamwork between dentists and DH and a clearer understanding of roles and responsibilities. Given these results in which students had what is widely considered to be less effective IntraPE through didactic interactions, 6,11,13,24 it can be hypothesized that results from future studies of the RIDE program, where students have more clinical IntraPE, would yield stronger and more positive results.…”

Interprofessional education in dentistry

“…23 An IPE event involving dental students and student doctors of nursing practice 24 found that students were respectful of each needs. Within the UK, dental students and student dental technicians linked together in the provision of dentures for a patient, resulted in the majority of students recognizing the benefits of shared learning and valuing the roles of team members, the acquisition of teamwork skills for their future careers and ultimately improving patient care 25 . Whilst general health profession IPE findings can be related to dentistry, further research in IPE within dentistry would be ideal in particular reporting outcomes in relation to patient care and service improvement.…”

The Benefits and Challenges of Collaborative Learning: Educating Dental and Dental Hygiene Students Together

“…Previous studies have found that intraprofessional educational experiences improved teamwork within the dental profession, 8 facilitated a clearer understanding of each provider's roles and responsibilities within the health care team, 1 , 7 – 13 and improved patient outcomes 10 . Research in this area has focused on other allied dental professionals 1 , 9 , 12 or special projects with a short‐term shared learning experience between dental and dental hygiene students 8 . The aim of our study was to assess the perspectives of dental and dental hygiene students regarding collaborative learning after taking two courses together.…”