Improving assessment in dental education through a paradigm of comprehensive care: a case report.

The assessment of clinical competence in health disciplines is a critical issue. Universities have a responsibility to graduate students who can demonstrate fitness to practice because clinical competence relates directly to the quality of patients' care-the quality of their treatment, their health outcomes, and their experience. In respect of the last of these, this article argues that the nature of what we term "clinical competence" ought to recognize the patient before the medical/dental condition or clinical intervention and, in order to achieve this, dental education should adopt learning, teaching, and assessment strategies that develop integrated learning outcomes consistent with a paradigm of comprehensive care.