How Do U.S. and Canadian Dental Schools Teach Interpersonal Communication Skills?

Abstract

The status of instruction in interpersonal communication was surveyed in forty U.S and Canadian dental schools. Key faculty members were identified, and syllabi and course descriptions were collected and content-analyzed. The following findings were obtained for responding schools: 1) only one-third of schools had courses specifically focusing on interpersonal communication; 2) more than half of the schools offered these types of courses only during the first two years; 3) the most common topics were communication skills, patient interviewing, and patient education/consultation; 4) the most frequently used method of teaching was lectures; active practice was used less often; 5) written examination was the primary instructional evaluation tool, whereas more sophisticated performance-oriented assessments were used less often; and 6) about half of the teachers did not have a D.D.S. degree; those not dentists were primarily psychologists. At least eight of the forty dental schools surveyed do not appear to meet the accreditation guidelines for predoctoral programs in this area of instruction. Some could not identify a faculty member responsible for such instruction. Schools offering more extensive instruction were more likely to offer active rather than passive teaching and use more sophisticated student evaluation strategies. This research suggests a need for reevaluation of teaching in this subject area.

Attitudes of Dental Interns Towards Learning Communication Skills in Alexandria University

“…To fulfill this aim, the researcher has contacted the course director responsible for teaching communication skills in both universities and has requested the course specification. Course analysis was established based on the following characteristics 1) the extent to which interpersonal communication skills are taught (timing) and where they are taught in the curriculum; 2) what content is taught; 3) what teaching methodology is used; 4) what approaches to evaluation are utilized; and 5) the background of course instructors (19).…”

Cultural Competence of Australian Dental Students

“…Continuous teaching with a gradual increase in complexity has been considered the most effective method of teaching transcultural skills, thus exposure to these concepts in previous undergraduate study may also contribute to differences between the courses [22,23]. Interestingly, a study investigating social and cultural teaching of medical students concluded that the teaching made little to no difference when students began clinical rotations [24].…”

A model to teach concomitant patient communication during psychomotor skill development

“…There are numerous benefits derived from effective communication with patients. These include improved patient satisfaction and compliance (Teutsch 2003), efficient assessment of patient history, and a reduction in patient distress and anxiety (Yoshida, Milgrom, and Coldwell 2002;Jayawardene and LaDuca 2014). Importantly, the outcomes of being an effective communicator include reduced patient complaints ( The limitations of working memory: overload from teaching communication skills with task performance Silverman and Wood (2004) suggest that communication skills are more complicated, therefore more difficult to teach and learn, than the majority of procedural tasks.…”

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More than a decade ago, a limited number of authors (Yoshida, Milgrom, and Coldwell 2002;Kneebone et al 2002; pointed out that it was a rudimentary requirement of all health professionals to be able to communicate with the patient at the time a task was being performed. At this time, some educators believed that the skills to become an effective communicator for clinical task performance were taught during the undergraduate curriculum (Kneebone et al 2002).

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