Dental students often report high levels of stress. Even though many studies have been conducted on this issue, we still lack a global understanding of how dental students experience and deal with stress, making it difficult for dental educators to improve this situation. Consequently, our study aimed to understand in a comprehensive manner how dental students experience stress. We conducted a qualitative research study based on in-depth one-on-one interviews with twelve recent graduates from a Canadian dental school. The interviews were recorded and transcribed verbatim. We then analyzed the transcripts in a process that included coding, displaying, and interpreting data. We identified three types of students: highly stressed, moderately stressed, and relaxed students. Relaxed students reported very low levels of stress, which they dealt with by using good coping skills. Moderately stressed students were more affected, but they considered stress as acceptable and even helpful as it pushed them to perform better and succeed. Finally, highly stressed students showed alarming levels of stress and described it as "crippling" and "unmanageable." They felt helpless and explained that stress had negative repercussions for their physical and mental health as well as their social life. They related stress to fear of failing, heavy workload, and difficulties in dealing with transitions in the curriculum and sometimes to difficult relationships with the academic staff. They dealt with stress by using poor coping skills. It is crucial to help highly stressed students by both reducing their sources of stress and helping them develop appropriate coping strategies.

A typology of dental students according to their experience of stress: a qualitative study.

Including students’ perceptions in the educational process is considered a key component in monitoring the quality of academic programs This study aimed to evaluate the concept of one’s learning experience in endodontic teaching from the perspective of a group of Brazilian students A total of 126 self-administered, structured questionnaires were distributed to undergraduate dental students enrolled in endodontics courses during the second semester of the 2009 academic year The questionnaires were administered during final examinations and focused on students’ opinions concerning learning during endodontic treatments, time spent during endodontic treatments, difficulties found during endodontic treatments, quality of endodontic treatments performed, characteristics of the technique employed, and suggestions to improve endodontic teaching Ninety-one percent of the questionnaires were returned for evaluation The obtained answers were discussed and analyzed, thereby generating quantitative and qualitative data showing students’ perceptions of their experiences in endodontics courses The main points that can affect the teaching of endodontics, according to the undergraduate students, included patients’ absences and delays, selection of patients, preclinical and clinical training, difficulties found, type of technique employed, and teachers’ orientation during endodontic treatment The students’ perceptions provided valuable information about the development of the course and the teacherstudent relationship, together with the added intention of enhancing the teaching of endodontics as well as other courses

Learning experience in endodontics: Brazilian students' perceptions.

This study evaluated the perceptions of Brazilian undergraduate dental students about the endodontic treatments performed using NiTi rotary instruments and hand stainless steel. Data were collected using a questionnaire administered to undergraduate dental students enrolled in endodontic disciplines. The students were divided into 3 groups: G1, students who had treated straight canals with SS hand instruments; G2, students who had treated curved canals with SS hand instruments; and G3, students who had treated both straight and curved canals with NiTi rotary instruments. The number of endodontic treatments performed, types of treated teeth, students' learning, time spent, encountered difficulties, quality of endodontic treatment and characteristics of the employed technique were analyzed. There was a 91.3% rate of return for the questionnaires. Mandibular molars were the most frequently treated teeth, followed by maxillary incisors. The Kruskal-Wallis test showed no differences in learning (p=0.528) or in the characteristics of the technique employed (p=0.560) among the three groups. G3 students performed a greater number of endodontic treatments (p<0.001) in a smaller time (p<0.001) than did G1 and G2 students. Difficulties were reported primarily by students in G2 and G3 compared with G1 (p=0.048). The quality of endodontic treatments differed only between G1 and G2 (p=0.045). The use of NiTi rotary instruments should be included in undergraduate dental curriculum, contributing to the increase of patients assisted and consequently to improve the clinical experience of the students.

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Dental students' perceptions about the endodontic treatments performed using NiTi rotary instruments and hand stainless steel files

A key aspect of predoctoral dental education involves ethics/professionalism and interpersonal communications. Empathy is an integral aspect of both. This study at the Schulich School of Medicine and Dentistry, University of Western Ontario, examined predoctoral students' perspectives to determine the impact of new educational methodologies designed to integrate patients' voices into a patient management lecture course. Videos of patients describing their dental experiences were added along with classroom discussion and students' reflective journals on the topics raised. Early results indicate that students perceived this innovation enhanced the teaching of professionalism, raised their awareness of the importance of empathy, and was a well-received addition to the course.

Can patients help teach professionalism and empathy to dental students? Adding patient videos to a lecture course.

Introduction

The prevalence of high levels of stress as well as its multilevel consequences is well documented amongst students in the health sciences, and particularly in dentistry. However, investigations of perceived stress amongst Spanish-speaking student groups are sparse. This study aimed to (i) describe the translation, adaptation and psychometric properties of a Spanish version of the Dental Environment Stressors questionnaire and (ii) to examine the perceived sources of stress and their associations with the students' study year and gender in two dental schools in Latin America.



Materials and methods

All students officially registered in the dental schools of the University of San Sebastian (USS) in Chile and the Catholic University of Cordoba (CUC) in Argentina were invited to participate in the study. The DES30 questionnaire was adapted in Spanish using translation/back-translation, an expert bilingual committee, and consensus building. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure the instrument's internal consistency, and iterated principal factor analysis with promax rotation was employed to explore its underlying factor structure. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate methods were used to examine the patterns of association between individual stressors, factor scores and students' characteristics.



Results

Three hundred and four students comprised the study's analytical sample, with two-thirds of those being female. The DES30-Sp demonstrated good internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.89). A four-factor solution emerged and included ‘academic workload’, ‘clinical training’, ‘time constraints’ and ‘self-efficacy beliefs’ factors. ‘Fear of failing a course or a year’, ‘examinations and grades’ and ‘lack of time for relaxation’ were amongst the top individual-item stressors reported by students in both schools. Amongst this group of undergraduate dental students, those in Argentina, in higher study year, and females reported higher perceived stress.



Conclusions

Increased workload, time constraints and some aspects of clinical training were the top stressors of approximately 300 Chilean and Argentinean dental undergraduates. Some variations between schools, males and females and study years were noted. The Spanish version of the DES30 questionnaire performed well, but future studies should evaluate the instrument's properties in larger and more diverse dental student populations.

Perceived sources of stress amongst Chilean and Argentinean dental students.

This cross-sectional study compares morale among dental students at five western U.S. dental schools, relates morale to various aspects of the school environment, and determines a prioritized list of the most important aspects of dental education from the students’ perspective. Survey data were collected from students at the end of their first, second, and third years. Respondents answered several questions associated with student morale and listed the three best aspects and three greatest challenges of their school. Lastly, respondents ranked seven different aspects of dental education in order of importance. Surveys were returned by 742 students (66 percent response). Student morale varied significantly in different educational institutions. Morale tended to be lower among third-year students and higher among first-year students. Poor student-faculty relations was the factor most strongly associated with decreased morale. Similarly, positive atmosphere was the factor most frequently associated with high morale. Faculty and clinic experience were the most frequently cited positive aspects of schools; curriculum and clinic experience were the most commonly cited negative aspects. Students commonly perceived clinical experience to be the most important aspect of their education. As students neared graduation, they perceived business management as more important and lab work as less important.

Wes R. Cardall

Papers

Dental Education from the Students’ Perspective: Curriculum and Climate