Clinical Competence of Graduates of Community‐Based and Traditional Curricula
- 1 December 2005
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Wiley in Journal of Dental Education
- Vol. 69 (12), 1324-1331
- https://doi.org/10.1002/j.0022-0337.2005.69.12.tb04031.x
Abstract
As community‐based dental education programs proliferate, so do concerns about the quality of education at extramural sites. While there have been some comparisons of the effects of community‐based programs on attitudes and perceptions of competency, there is virtually no information about whether such programs can train students to carry out standard dental procedures as well as if they were prepared in the dental school proper. To address this gap in our knowledge about the educational outcomes of community‐based programs, the following performance measures were retrospectively compared for 457 students in traditional senior year curricula and fifty seniors in a community‐based program: scores and pass/fail rates on the Northeastern Regional Boards (NERB), clinical production, passage of competencies, and on‐time graduation rates. Students in the CODE (Community‐Oriented Dental Education) program at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ)‐New Jersey Dental School (NJDS) demonstrated significantly higher scores on the restorative section of the NERB, but this did not translate into a better overall pass rate. CODE students passed the same competencies as graduates of the traditional program, yet demonstrated appreciably higher clinical productivity and on‐time graduation rates. The additional clinical experiences for the CODE students may be a factor in their higher board scores. Based on these data, it is concluded that community‐based dental educational programs can be at least as effective as intramural (school‐based) educational experiences in providing students with a sound clinical education.Keywords
Funding Information
- U.S. Department of Education
This publication has 7 references indexed in Scilit:
- Predictive Validity of Dental Hygiene Competency Assessment Measures on One‐Shot Clinical Licensure ExaminationsJournal of Dental Education, 2005
- A Survey of Deans and ADEA Activities on Dental Licensure IssuesJournal of Dental Education, 2003
- Alumni Perspectives on Community‐Based and Traditional CurriculaJournal of Dental Education, 2003
- Recording and understanding social histories by dental undergraduates in a community-based clinical programmeEuropean Journal of Dental Education, 2003
- 5.1 The demography of oral diseases, future challenges and the implications for dental educationEuropean Journal of Dental Education, 2002
- Banning Live Patients as Test Subjects on Licensing ExaminationsJournal of Dental Education, 2002
- The effect of an extramural education program on the perceived clinical competence of dental hygiene studentsJournal of Dental Education, 1999