Abstract
The growth in the number of elderly people in Japan is accompanied by a growth in the number of elderly dental patients. At the same time, the number of dependent elderly continues to increase. Consequently, dentists and their co-workers have to understand the problems and current status of eld- erly dependent patients. However, many dental students today have had little contact with elderly peo- ple because of the trend towards the nuclear family.
A group of 5th-year predoctoral dental students did an internship in anursing home, with a view to changing their stereotyped image of the elderly. Specifically, the internship aimed to help them to understand the lives of the dependent elderly, to teach them how to nurse and help the patients, and to stimulate them to consider the current problems of the dependent elderly. After the practice, students filled out a questionnaire on their understanding of the elderly patients, and we evaluated the internship from the results of the questionnaire. 90% of the students indicated that they had deepened their understanding of the dependent elderly, and 83% answered that this internship was a good experience for them. Moreover, the students could point out various problems of the dependent elderly, had learned how to nurse and help them, and how to rehabilitate them. Therefore, we concluded that this program is effective for predoctoral dental students, and the program should be continued.
