The pedagogical value of parallel charts for dental students in clinical education: A qualitative study.

INTRODUCTION: Narrative medicine is a novel approach aimed at attending to the socio-emotional aspects of illness and care. Parallel charts represent one of the tools of narrative medicine and are brief accounts of care in which practitioners can express their feelings and emotions towards patients and treatments. They are, therefore, intended to collect practitioners' feedback in the form of "narrative" tools to encourage reflection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is a single-centre observational pilot study comprising the setting up and analysis of parallel charts in two classes of 5th and 6th year students in a Paediatric Dentistry Department in France. Forty-four students completed 126 parallel charts. A qualitative, thematic, analysis was conducted and the charts were also classified according to the three types of description of illness made by Arthur Kleinman. RESULTS: This work showed that dental students mainly compiled parallel charts from a disease-centred perspective. The qualitative analysis identified the various themes addressed by the student: relationship with patients and managing children's anxiety, student stress, relationship with the environment or with lecturers. CONCLUSION: The qualitative analysis highlighted the usefulness of compiling parallel charts by the students to allow them to express both positive and negative feelings, and thus to adopt a self-evaluative approach regarding their practices based on emotional impact. Parallel charts may improve patient-practitioner relationship, but more extensive studies over longer periods of time need to be undertaken.

Development and Assessment of the Personal Emotional Capital Questionnaire for Adults.

(1) Background: The present study developed and evaluated a personal emotional capital questionnaire (PECQ) for adults that assessed 10 domains of personal emotional capital. (2) Method: Initially, 100 items were created and then administered to students attending Semnan University and Semnan University of Medical Sciences in Iran. Of the 700 questionnaires distributed, 527 were completed in full. Students were sampledusing the multi-stage random cluster method. Exploratory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha, and test-retest reliability were used to evaluate the scale. (3) Results: The ten components ofthe PECQ were confirmed. Test-retest correlations after 30 days were high, as was Cronbach's alpha (0.94). Thecomponents highly correlatedwith overall emotional capital. The PECQ displayed convergent validity as it positively correlated with the Keyes's Mental Health Continuum-Short Form and students'GPAs. The PECQ displayed divergent validity as it negatively correlated with measures of depression, anxiety and stress (Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS21)). Differences in overall PECQ scores and its components were examined for several variables including gender, age, marital and employment status, academic program, and field of study. PECQ scores were not sensitive to the order of administering questionnaires. (4) Conclusion: The results suggest that the PECQ is a valid and reliable measure of personal emotional capital and supports its use in adults.