Abstract
Abstract Okayama University Dental School implemented an outpatient escort practicum as a form of early clinical exposure. It is useful to clarify how students perceived the practicum after they finished their clinical training to inform improvements. The purpose of this study was to evaluate an outpatient escort practicum implemented with first-grade students from the perspective of those students after they had completed clinical training.
The evaluation was performed twice, with the same students completing the questionnaires. The first evaluation was conducted immediately after the outpatient escort practicum in the students’ first grade, and the second after they had completed their clinical training (sixth grade). The participants were 82 dental students who completed both questionnaires about the outpatient escort practicum.
Overall, the second evaluation was significantly lower than the first evaluation. Students who positively evaluated the practicum in their first grade but gave a negative evaluation in their sixth grade reported less appreciation for the practicum in terms of understanding the patients’ perspectives and understanding the communication skills required by future healthcare professionals. Students who positively evaluated the practicum both times highlighted that the practicum helped them to understand the communication skills required by future dentists. The study findings indicated that the practicum was more positively evaluated by students immediately after they had completed it than by the same students 5 years later. However, the practicum was positively evaluated by the participating students after they had completed clinical training to some extent.
