Clinical Practice as an Undergraduate Course of the Dental Hygienist student at the Orthodontic Clinic of the Hokkaido University Hospital

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the educational situation around clinical training of dental hygienist students at Hokkaido University Hospital. A questionnaire survey was conducted with a total of 41 dental hygienist students from three training institutions for dental hygienists who had completed of orthodontic clinical training. The questionnaire was aimed to analyze the status of the educational program and to identify problems in the educational situation at the clinic of the authors as an educational facility. The following points were established. (1) Over 85% of the students were aware of the General Instructional Objectives (GIO) before clinical training, and also checked these during the training. (2) Over 80% of the students considered that they achieved the GIO and that Hokkaido University Hospital had provided adequate educational programs. (3) Over 85% of the students thought that instruction was "Intelligible" or "Somewhat intelligible" and that teaching materials were adequate. (4) Comments by satisfied students included "studying from many cases", "detailed instructions from the staff", "instruction from their own teachers", and similar. Among the dissatisfied responses were "There are few chances to learn the service of hygienist as it actually takes place", "short training period", and similar. (5) About 30% of the students met with some risky situation during the training. (6) Over 80% students had zeal for their occupation after training, while the remaining had a negative image.