Dental student perceptions of teamwork during a community-engaged interprofessional learning experience.

INTRODUCTION: Dental professionals have been strong advocates for interprofessional education (IPE). During PFF, students in diverse, interprofessional teams of four are assigned a local volunteer family during their first academic year. Teams conduct four home visits and implement a health improvement project focused on the family's health and well-being. The purpose of our analysis was to examine dental student perspectives on the use of teamwork skills during this unique interprofessional educational experience. METHODS AND MATERIALS: Dental student responses from 2017 to 2018 and 2018 to2019 were qualitatively analysed. Open coding by hand was used to identify keywords and themes. The themes and open codes were compared and contrasted by the researchers until a consensus was reached on themes. RESULTS: Researchers discerned three meta-themes: value, skills and time. Researchers also found eight sub-themes prevalent in responses: teamwork, adaptability, mutual support, trust, interprofessional communication, time, feedback, coordination and accountability. DISCUSSION: Our findings indicate dental students understood the importance of interprofessional teamwork and experiential learning within the context of PFF. Students communicated an understanding of how teamwork skills can impact team-oriented outcomes. Dental students seemed to value many teamwork skills that contributed to their interprofessional team's success and experiential learning experience. CONCLUSION: Engagement in a longitudinal experience that is patient-centred, requiring time outside of the classroom, is valued by dental students for its interprofessional collaborative competency development.

Assessing professionalism in health profession degree programs: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND: To identify and classify methods for assessing professionalism across health profession degree programs and identify gaps in the literature regarding types of assessments. METHODS: The authors conducted a scoping review of articles published from database inception through 24 January 2020. Included articles described an assessment approach for professionalism in health profession degree programs available in full-text in the English language. Articles were classified based on profession, timing of assessment, feedback type, assessment type, professionalism dimension, and Barr's modified Kirkpatrick hierarchy. RESULTS: Authors classified 277 articles meeting inclusion criteria. Most articles were from medical education (62.5%) conducted during didactic (62.1%) or experiential/clinical curriculum (49.8%). Few articles (15.5%) described longitudinal assessment. Feedback type was formative (32.2%) or summative (35%), with only 8.3% using both. Assessment types frequently reported included self-administered rating scales (30%), reflections (18.8%), observed clinical encounters (17.3%), and knowledge-based tests (13.4%). Ethical practice principles (65%) and effective interactions with patients (48.4%) were the most frequently assessed dimensions of professionalism. Authors observed balanced distribution among Barr's modified Kirkpatrick model at levels of reaction (38.3%), modification of perceptions and attitudes (33.6%), acquisition of knowledge and skills (39%), and behavioral change (36.1%). IMPLICATIONS: The classification scheme identified in current literature on professionalism assessment does not align with International Ottawa Conference Working Group on the Assessment of Professionalism recommendations. Gaps identified were limited description of professionalism assessment during admissions, infrequent longitudinal assessment, limited use of methods for both formative and summative assessment, and limited reports of assessments applicable to interprofessional education settings.

Evaluation of Team-Based Learning and Traditional Instruction in Teaching Removable Partial Denture Concepts.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of team-based learning (TBL) methodology on dental students' retention of knowledge regarding removable partial denture (RPD) treatment. The process of learning RPD treatment requires that students first acquire foundational knowledge and then use critical thinking skills to apply that knowledge to a variety of clinical situations. The traditional approach to teaching, characterized by a reliance on lectures, is not the most effective method for learning clinical applications. To address the limitations of that approach, the teaching methodology of the RPD preclinical course at the University of Florida was changed to TBL, which has been shown to motivate student learning and improve clinical performance. A written examination was constructed to compare the impact of TBL with that of traditional teaching regarding students' retention of knowledge and their ability to evaluate, diagnose, and treatment plan a partially edentulous patient with an RPD prosthesis. Students taught using traditional and TBL methods took the same examination. The response rate (those who completed the examination) for the class of 2013 (traditional method) was 94% (79 students of 84); for the class of 2014 (TBL method), it was 95% (78 students of 82). The results showed that students who learned RPD with TBL scored higher on the examination than those who learned RPD with traditional methods. Compared to the students taught with the traditional method, the TBL students' proportion of passing grades was statistically significantly higher (p=0.002), and 23.7% more TBL students passed the examination. The mean score for the TBL class (0.758) compared to the conventional class (0.700) was statistically significant with a large effect size, also demonstrating the practical significance of the findings. The results of the study suggest that TBL methodology is a promising approach to teaching RPD with successful outcomes.

Curriculum time compared to clinical procedures in amalgam and composite posterior restorations in U.S. dental schools: a preliminary study.

Dental clinicians have an expanding range of biomaterial choices for restoring tooth structure. Scientific developments in cariology, advances in dental biomaterials, and patients' esthetic concerns have led to a reduction in amalgam restorations and an increase in composite restorations. The aim of this study was to compare teaching time with students' clinical procedures in amalgam and composite posterior restorations in dental schools across the United States. Academic deans in 60 schools were invited to complete a survey that asked for the amount of instructional time for amalgam and composite posterior restorations and the number of clinical restorations performed by their Classes of 2009, 2010, and 2011. Of these 60, 12 returned surveys with complete data, for a 20% response rate. Responses from these schools showed little change in lecture and preclinical laboratory instruction from 2009 to 2011. There was a slight increase in two-surface restorations for both amalgam and composites; however, the total number of reported composite and amalgam restorations remained the same. Of 204,864 restorations reported, 53% were composite, and 47% were amalgam. There were twice as many multisurface large or complex amalgam restorations as composites. One-surface composite restorations exceeded amalgams. Among the participating schools, there was little to no change between curriculum time and clinical procedures. Findings from this preliminary study reflect a modest increase in two-surface resin-based restorations placed by dental students from 2009 to 2011 and little change in curricular time devoted to teaching amalgam restorations. The total number of posterior composite restorations placed by students in these schools was slightly higher than amalgams.

Interprofessional education in U.S. and Canadian dental schools: an ADEA Team Study Group report.

The state of interprofessional education (IPE) in U.S. and Canadian dental schools was studied by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) Team Study Group on Interprofessional Education. The study group reviewed the pertinent IPE literature, examined IPE competencies for dental students, surveyed U.S. and Canadian dental schools to determine the current and planned status of IPE activities, and identified best practices. Members of the study group prepared case studies of the exemplary IPE programs of six dental schools, based on information provided by those schools; representatives from each school then reviewed and approved its case study. Six reviewers critiqued a draft of the study group's report, and study group members and reviewers met together to prepare recommendations for schools. This report identifies four domains of competence for student achievement in IPE and summarizes responses to the survey (which had an 86 percent response rate). It also includes the case descriptions of six schools' IPE programs and the study group's recommendations for dental schools. The report concludes that there is general recognition of the goals of IPE across U.S. and Canadian dental schools, but a wide range of progress in IPE on the various campuses. Challenges to the further development of IPE are discussed.

Observation and assessment of faculty development learning outcomes.

Prior research has found that participation in course offerings provides a means of professional development and results in changes to faculty beliefs and instructional practices. However, as with most professional development initiatives in education, little is known about the sustainability of these training efforts. The research question that guided this study was the following: Do professional development efforts in teaching result in observed learning outcomes among faculty members? In this study, teaching observations served as the primary data source. Twelve faculty members (six in the College of Dentistry and six in the College of Health and Human Performance) who completed two six-week teaching seminars in fall 2006 and spring 2007 or spring 2008 and summer 2008 were asked to participate in a classroom observation and an interview lasting no longer than forty-five minutes. Six dental faculty members and three faculty members from the College of Health and Human Performance agreed to participate in the study. Three standardized reviewers conducted these classroom observations during fall 2008, spring 2009, and summer 2009. An active teaching rubric was used to evaluate the class transcripts. The findings revealed that participants somewhat frequently to frequently used questions that were open-ended or checked for comprehension. Seven of nine instructors made extensive efforts to engage the students interactively throughout the teaching session. Six of the participants infused the description of actual or hypothetical cases to illustrate the connections between teaching and patient care, while six utilized reflective practices. Findings from the interviews corroborated the observations. Overall, the findings showed that participants demonstrated the integration of those strategies that were taught during the seminars, which were consistent with teaching critical thinking skills and showed that the learning acquired during professional development initiatives was sustained.