Alumni-Informed Curriculum in Pediatric Dentistry: Narratives from a Quality Improvement Evaluation

Abstract

Background:

U.S. dental school graduates must complete competencies in oral health care across the life course. While they have met these requirements, little is known about graduates’ assessment of how this training prepared them for practice. Future practice setting may affect the training needs of dental school graduates. This quality improvement survey looked at alumni narratives regarding their predoctoral training in pediatric dentistry, the adequacy of this training, how practice setting influenced their training needs, and what recommendations they would make for curriculum change.

Methods:

As part of a larger survey, semi-structured interviews were conducted of 14 recent alumni in general dental practice; the questions covered their graduation year, current practice setting, recollection of their predoctoral pediatric dental training, the adequacy of that training, and recommendations on how to prepare future graduates to care for pediatric dental patients. Interviews were transcribed and assessed for these themes.

Results:

Half of the practitioners were in private practice, and half worked in rural or community clinics. Recent alumni felt comfortable and confident treating the oral health needs of a pediatric population but overwhelmingly said that they wanted more hands-on experience in dental school. They especially highlighted the need to see patients with challenging behavior and more complex operative treatment needs. Alumni working in rural areas or community clinics emphasized the need for these skills because of the lack of referral options.

Conclusions:

Recent alumni wish they had had more hands-on pediatric dental experiences in dental school to better prepare them for the challenges they face in practice. These experiences may be limited, and one suggestion would be to channel these opportunities to practitioners who will work in areas where there are insufficient resources and fewer options for referral.

Knowledge Transfer Statement:

The recommendations from this article can be used by dental educators to improve clinical and didactic teaching and to ensure dental learners’ education and competency.