Early Clinical Exposure and Near Peer Learning: Leading-edge Effective Teaching-Learning Module

Background: Students studying dentistry typically have minimal opportunities to develop their teaching abilities. There is no literature in dentistry education that describes the merger of ‘Early Clinical Exposure’ (ECE) and ‘Near Peer Learning’ (NPL) Module with regard to first-year BDS students and interns. Author created a novel module for ECE and NPL to evaluate its impact in knowledge. Materials and methods: 2016 to 2022 six batches students and interns participated in this module including 535 First BDS students and 60 interns. This study was conducted in two phases: Initial Preparation by Faculty to teach theory and demonstrations to First BDS students and Training Sessions for interns and in second phase the actual implementation of ECE-NPL Module. The first year BDS students were first time introduced in clinics and Alginate impression clinical procedure was demonstrated on patients by interns. The Global Rating Scale was used to validate and rate the pre-test and post-test checklist. Paired t-tests were used for the pre- and post-test analyses to evaluate the module's outcomes. Results: Paired t-tests analysis of Pre and post-tests to evaluate outcome of the module shows that outcome factors are increased by the demonstration in clinics. The chi-square goodness of fit test for impact of ECE on students was ?2 (3)=315.654, p value<0.05 and for Intern’s perception about NPL was ?2 (2)=37.900, p value<0.05 and First Year Student’s perception about NPL was ?2 (4)=586.393.Conclusion: This study shed light on the clinical training approach used in a dental undergraduate program and emphasized the advantages of ECE and NPL in the study population. It works well as a supplement to conventional teaching techniques. The positive feedback from the students was received and scored high rating.