Abstract
Abstract Dental students in the second semester of the third year have little clinical experience. Using a new worksheet, students prepared for a medical interview before performing role-playing practice for their first medical examination.
This new A3-sized worksheet was designed in spreadsheet style. One line contained 4 cells horizontally with (1) the dentist asking the medical history, (2) the dentist asking the patient a question, (3) the patient’s response to (2), and (4) the dentist’s response to (3). Sentences, or questions for (1) and (3), are already shown in the worksheet, and (2) and (4) are left blank for students to fill in. This set is considered as one unit for this practice, and there are 36 units and 2 summary lines, one in the middle of the interview and another at the end. In total, there are 38 lines for students to describe what they find in the first medical examination, in this case, acute symptoms.
The results of the students using the worksheet were as follows.
1. Although the students had not acquired professional knowledge in dental diagnosis, they could still make questions to elicit answers from patients who had already been described to them beforehand, and they could make questions based on communication skills they had learned.
2. The students could experience what a medical interview would be like. The students followed the structure of a medical interview based on their worksheet.
3. The students could experience an introduction to what a patient-centered medical interview should be like. This enables them to learn to show consideration for patients by trying to understand their physical conditions based on traditional diagnosis methods and by dealing with patients’ responses.
The study results illustrate the effectiveness of the worksheet.
