UMKC Community-based Dental Education 2006 – A Qualitative Evaluation of Student Comments

Introduction: UMKC School of Dentistry rotates third and fourth year dental students through community health center dental clinics for a total of four weeks. Students complete anonymous evaluations of their outreach experiences.

Methods: Immediately following their outreach rotation, each student is provided a printed evaluation instrument that includes numerical ratings and an open-ended section. Returned evaluations are entered into a database. Using qualitative methods, comments are sorted into themes for analytical review.

Results: There were 94 students' evaluations analyzed for the Class of 2006. The major positive themes that emerged from analysis were: full schedule, work with other dentists, real-world clinical experience, and a great variety of patients. These were identified by a majority of respondents. Two negative themes were too much down-time between patients and the requirement to travel to reach the site. They were identified by less than one-fifth of respondents.

Discussion: These qualitative data expand on our numerical data and indicate that most students appreciate the community based dental education program. Increasing the duration of the outreach sessions could increase the clinical procedures that students perform. Improving the communication between the various sites and stakeholders could address the concerns that the students identified.

Conclusion: Most dental students provided positive feedback and identified opportunities for program improvement. Surveys should be undertaken to track the practice preferences of students who have participated in community based dental education programs to measure the impact this program has on providing dental care to underserved populations.