Student self-assessment of essential skills in dental surgery.

Objective: To assess whether student self-assessments of essential skills in dental surgery are reliable indicators of the strengths and weaknesses of the clinical aspects of the dental school curriculum. This was done as part of an ongoing evaluation of the curriculum of the Faculty of Dental Sciences of the University of Peradeniya in Sri Lanka.

Design: Cross-sectional surveys of 5 different classes of students using a pre-tested questionnaire.

Setting: The Faculty of Dental Sciences of the University of Peradeniya, Sri Lanka, which is the only dental school in the island.

Materials & Methods: A questionnaire was developed specifically for the purpose of eliciting student self-confidence in 46 essential skills on a three point scale. It was administered to 5 different classes of students, immediately or soon after their respective Final BDS examinations. The 5 classes had followed similar curricular formats. The surveys were conducted on a voluntary and anonymous basis.

Results: Results show a remarkable consistency in the self-ratings done by the five different classes of students who followed the same curriculum during five different time periods. Students were least confident in the skills related to the management of medical emergencies and of oral manifestations of systemic diseases while they were most confident in skills related to the care of periodontal disease and caries.

Conclusion: Student self-assessments of skills is a useful tool for evaluating the clinical training provided in the dental school curriculum. Students were most confident in managing problems that they most frequently encountered in the dental school. The areas in which they were least confident require curricular reform.