Students' Perceived Importance of Diversity Exposure and Training in Dental Education

Abstract

Intercultural competence is an important component of the doctor-patient relationship in the multicultural climate evolving in the United States. We hypothesized that 1) exposure to racial and ethnic diversity in the student body, faculty, staff, and patient population in dental school and 2) a dental school curriculum that includes presentations on issues concerning racial and ethnic diversity will contribute to students' feeling more competent and confident to enter the multicultural work environment that is rapidly developing in the United States. A Likert-type scale questionnaire was administered to 627 fourth-year dental students enrolled in seven dental schools representing geographically diverse regions of the United States. Of these, 376 questionnaires were returned for a response rate of 60 percent. Results indicated that both the perception of diversity in the school environment and the presentation of diversity-specific content in the curriculum had moderately positive and significant correlations with the students' perception of their competency or ability to serve and work with diverse populations. The respective Pearson correlation coefficients for diversity in the school environment and diversity curriculum were .497 (p<.001) and .459 (p<.001). These results support the hypotheses that diversity exposure and training in the dental school environment are important for dental students entering a multicultural workplace.

Providing Care for Underserved Patients: Periodontists' and Periodontal Residents' Educational Experiences, Attitudes, and Behaviors

“…For example, in 2002, Waldman and Perlman 21 showed that dentists reported a lack of knowledge about providing care for patients with special needs and a lack of clinical experiences concerning the treatment of these patients during dental school. Although additional non‐education related factors, such as concerns about adequate compensation and special arrangements needed when providing care for these patients, might also affect the decisions of dentists to treat special needs patients, 21,22 it seems crucial to explore the role of dental education in this context. Given that large percentages of patients with mild or moderate challenges could be treated in dental offices, 23,24 the question arises as to how dentists (and in the context of this study, how periodontists) could be more optimally prepared to provide this much‐needed care.…”

Teaching and Learning Regarding the Dentist-Pediatric Patient Relationship: A Qualitative Study

“…Studies have shown that practice in a clinic enables students to perceive their personal progression and raises their self-confidence [4,6,18,29]. In pediatric dentistry, the experiences of dental students may help dental educators better prepare graduates to treat children [24].…”

“…Studies have shown that patient satisfaction with dental care is correlated to interpersonal relations with the dentist [4][5][6][7][8]. A good student-patient relationship is also based upon respect and dialogue [7][8][9].…”

Reforming dental workforce education and practice in the USA

“…Additionally, the Pipeline Program was funded in part to support ‘curricular revisions’ and specifically emphasised cultural competency training to better prepare graduates for practice in underserved communities. The medical and dental literature has suggested the provision of culturally competent care enhances outcomes for patients, but most of these studies are theory building, descriptive, and/or focus on awareness and attitudes (19–30) as opposed to actual performance of culturally competent behaviour in the practice setting.…”