Challenges in clinical performance of dentistry clinicians: towards strengthening areas of outcomes or competencies

Abstract

The study investigated the phenomenon of challenges and difficulties in the clinicalperformance of students in a university, accounting for the frequency of weaknesses and errorsof clinician students during clinical training as observed by the faculty in terms of theirknowledge, practical skills and attitudes. All eighteen faculty clinical consultants who weresupervising the 7 Clinical Departments in the College of Dentistry in a university were invitedto participate in the study, wherein questionnaires were given in two stages to identify andrecall the frequency of occurrence of errors or weaknesses in the clinical performance ofstudent clinicians in the 3rd and 4th year proper levels of the Dentistry Program. The sevenClinical Departments included the Restorative Dentistry Department, Oral DiagnosisDepartment, Periodontics Department, Oral Surgery Department, Endodontics Department,Prosthodontics Department, and the Pediatric Dentistry Department. The findings revealedseveral errors or weaknesses in clinical performance of students and some of these weaknesseswere seen by the clinical consultants to be frequently performed. Some of these are critical inthe proper training of future dentists and thus interventions in the target outcomes in the clinicaltraining program, as well as target outcomes and competencies in the area of pre-clinicaltraining, were recommended to be addressed.