Abstract
The literature reports that student transition between preclinical and clinical dental education can be traumatic and stressful for many reasons. Early clinical experience has been reported to provide some relief. In this qualitative study, twelve final year dental students were interviewed about their perceptions and experiences with a mentee/mentor (FOAL) program in Aarhus, Denmark, to see if it (1) counteracted stress perceptions from preclinical education to the clinic, (2) inspired professionalism and a sense of study relevance, (3) helped in learning to reflect on competencies and attitudes, (4) helped with clinical social perspectives (communication/contact), (5) helped with motivation to learn and (6) helped to reaffirm one’s professional study choice. Using qualitative description methods with purposeful sampling, data from interviews were collected, transcribed, analyzed and validated with a short questionnaire. The FOAL program, today, has several benefits for mentees, including partially helping in the preclinic to clinic transition and the increased insight into mentors’ clinical tasks and communication with patients. Informants described that FOAL also contributed positively to both mentee and mentor students’ learning motivation, collaborative skills and professional attitudes. Challenges were lack of organization/planning, not enough clinical hours, lack of clinical knowledge and persistent stress levels at the clinical transition. These issues are already being considered in the curriculum reform currently in progress and are also relevant to other dental curricula internationally.
Highlights
Accepted: 29 July 2021The literature [1,2,3,4] shows that the preclinic to clinic transition in dental education can be emotionally traumatic and stressful, which can lead to poor learning experiences [2], decreased motivation for learning [4] and, in the worst case, signs of anxiety and depression [1]
Motivation for clinical learning has been applicably described in selfdetermination theory (SDT) [8,9,10,11], where degrees of motivation are divided into three main categories: amotivation, external motivation and internal motivation
The present study aims to contribute to the international dental education literature and to inform educational policy considerations about early clinical experience and mentorship
Summary
Accepted: 29 July 2021The literature [1,2,3,4] shows that the preclinic to clinic transition in dental education can be emotionally traumatic and stressful, which can lead to poor learning experiences [2], decreased motivation for learning [4] and, in the worst case, signs of anxiety and depression [1]. Motivation for clinical learning has been applicably described in selfdetermination theory (SDT) [8,9,10,11], where degrees of motivation are divided into three main categories: amotivation, external motivation and internal motivation. Amotivation describes students with low or no motivation. The first and least autonomous phase is externally regulated motivation, where students study, for example, mainly because teachers or instructors have expectations of them and not because they themselves are optimally interested or engaged in learning or see its relevance or relatedness to becoming a professional. The two phases of learning motivation are gradual transitions in a student’s improving self-motivation levels. The fourth phase of external motivation is integrated regulation, where students transition to becoming self-motivated.
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