. Jananni Muthu; . Sivaramakrishnan Muthanandam; . K. R. Sethuraman; . K. A. Narayan; . N. Ananthakrishnan; . B. V. Adkoli
Volume 9, Issue 12 , December 2019, , Pages 1-8
Abstract
CONTEXT: The general dentist must not only have a broad biomedical and clinical education butalso be able to demonstrate professional and ethical behavior as well as effective communicationand ...
Read More
CONTEXT: The general dentist must not only have a broad biomedical and clinical education butalso be able to demonstrate professional and ethical behavior as well as effective communicationand interpersonal skills. In addition he or she must have the ability to evaluate and utilize emergingtechnologies, continuing professional development opportunities, and problem‑solving and criticalthinking skills to effectively address current and future issues in health care. But the extent to whichthe core competencies are taught and the students’ level of proficiency in these competencies inIndian scenario is to be explored at large.AIMS: The present study aims at assessing the self‑perceived level of competencies and theirimportance for future practice and the extent to which the competencies are taught in the curriculumamong interns of dental college in Pondicherry, India.SETTINGS AND DESIGN: The cross‑sectional observational study was conducted among dentalinterns of Indira Gandhi Institute of Dental Sciences, Pondicherry.SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total of 72 interns participated in the study. A short version of theFreiburg Questionnaire to Assess Competencies in Medicine” was used in this study. Questionnairehas three sections with same set of questions, which the student had to rate: (i) To what extent doyou have the following competencies at your disposal? (ii) To what extent will your future job requirethe following competencies? and (iii) To what extent is competencies taught to you? After the resultswere obtained a focused group discussion with the responders was done. Focused group discussionconsisted of open questions to the groups in all the four domains and the responses of the studentswere scribed.RESULTS: In all four domains, self‑perceived level of competency was not satisfactory. However, allstudents stated that the competencies were highly relevant for their future practice. Despite this, mostof the competencies are not taught to necessary extent in the curriculum. The results of the presentsurvey revealed that the participating students perceived deficiencies in all domains of competencies.CONCLUSIONS: These results indicate that the core competencies are still barely integrated intodental curricula and that further research in this field is needed.