2017 Volume 32 Issue 2 Pages 72-79
In this study, we conducted a free questionnaire survey of students with the aim of evaluating the usefulness and points requiring improvement of practical training based on studentsʼ impressions, and studied the results using a text mining method. We conducted a questionnaire survey of 5th grade dental students who underwent practical training of oral health care and swallowing treatment for geriatrics. We analyzed the results using a text mining method, and drew a co-occurrence network by subgraph detection and betweenness centrality.
As a result, in the network diagram of subgraph detection, the impressions of the students as a whole were grouped into seven topics, and various contents were shown. In particular, “slightly”, “times”, “increasing” and “clinical” co-occurred. The contents of those impressions were mainly a demand for practical training such as an increase in the number of times of clinical practice and an increase in photographs of cases. In the network diagram of betweenness centrality, the words “actual”, “practical training”, “elderly”, “dentistry”, “experience”, “person” and “bad” had high betweenness centrality in all students, and each word co-occurred. These words appeared to co-occur mainly for contents which displayed an understanding of the elderly through their own experiences. Based on these results, it was suggested that students described diverse impressions and they mainly described contents which displayed an understanding of the elderly through their own experiences. Therefore, these results suggest that the practical training is useful by promoting understanding of the elderly and that an educational and enlightening effect can be expected. On the other hand, the need to provide students with experience whenever possible in a limited time was confirmed.
