A New Course to Enhance Pre-Clinical Dental Hygiene Learning Experience

Abstract

As a result of feedback from students and faculty, a few areas of clinical preparation needing more proficiency were identified. A new program was developed to enhance the preclinical dental hygiene (DH) learning experiences. Traditionally, all preclinical skills were taught in one academic quarter. The new program continued preclinical teaching to the first half of the following quarter. In addition to didactic teaching, individual skill assessments were added so that students could have one-on-one instruction in instrument sharpening, removing calculus, and the use of the ultrasonic scaler. Since the skill assessments were evaluated, students were well prepared, thus allowing the instructors to take the skills to a level of practical application. Senior DH practicum students assigned in the course were responsible for creating dental charting scenarios and helped guide beginning students in completing appropriate paper work. A 4-point Likert survey was given to the 30 DH students, 9 clinical faculty, and 5 practicum students to identify their perception of preparedness for aspects of clinical care. While the majority of students felt prepared in most aspects of clinical care, some interesting information emerged. The majority of practicum students felt the class they helped teach was more prepared than they had been in the areas of instrument sharpening (80%), use of the ultrasonic scalers (80%), and completion of paper work (60%), while the majority of the beginning students did not feel prepared in the use of the ultrasonic scaler (97%) or completion of paper work (87%). Faculty (86%) felt the students were more prepared in these areas than in previous years. It appears that both faculty and practicum students feel that students are more prepared than in the past, but the beginning students still do not feel adequately prepared in all aspects of patient care.