A Cross Sectional Study on Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Dental Education and Clinical Training -A Global Perspective

Abstract

Objectives: 1) To understand the effect of the Covid-19 pandemic on the dental education system. 2) To determine the preparedness of dental educators/ education systems to face the new challenges. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional, questionnaire study involving dental educators from different countries was conducted. The time of conduct of this survey was from Oct 2021 to March 2022. The google form questionnaire used to collect the responses. With the intention to cover most of the global responses, at least one country from each continent was chosen. Statistical Analysis: Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS for Windows release 21.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Descriptive statistics were generated, and Chi-square test was used to examine differences in responses to the questions. The significance level was stated as p < 0.05. Results: Out of 280 invitations sent, 237 responses were received. Among the respondent’s 68.4% were male, 28.1% were female and the rest (3.5%) preferred not to mention their gender. There were 63.3% between the age of 36-45 and having teaching experience between 10-19 years. Most of the responses were the faculty members with the designation of Assistant and Associate professor. Responses received from a total of 13 countries. India (96) followed by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (78). 96.2% of respondents agreed that the Covid- 19 pandemic has influenced the dental education system. Majority (85.7%) believed the pandemic had a negative impact on dental education. Maximum number of respondents cited the social distancing norms (43%), as the reason for such an impact. Conclusion: Majority of the respondents agreed that the pandemic had an adverse effect on the existing dental education practices. Effect was mainly because of reasons like implementation of social distancing norms, socioeconomic impact of the pandemic and changes in the government policies for safe practices. Although half of the respondents agree that they lack the knowledge and skills to adapt to the changing needs of the dental education system, there was an overwhelming interest for upgrading their skills to match the evolving requirements.