Transferability of clinical skills acquired on simulator to real life clinical practice.

Aim: The aims of this study were to determine the relationship between performances of students in clinical skills laboratory and real life clinical practice and to determine the experiences and views of instructors as it relates to teaching in skills laboratory.

Methods: The performances of two randomly selected sets of graduates in the operative examinations conducted in skills laboratory were compared with the performances of the same sets of graduates in the operative examinations conducted on life patients two years later using Spearman's rank test. Experiences and views of two teachers from each of the six dental schools in southern Nigeria as it relates to teaching in clinical skills laboratory were obtained using a structured questionnaire.

Results: There was an insignificant correlation between the outcomes at both examinations (p value was 0.18). Most of the respondents (62.5%) agreed that teaching in skills laboratory was tiresome and most (75.0%) strongly agreed that the number of students constitutes a serious challenge to learning. Most of the respondents regarded their role in skills laboratory as that of an expert as against that of a facilitator.

Conclusion: There was a weak correlation between performances in skills laboratory and real life environment. Students' number appears to make teaching in skills laboratory unpleasant and teachers had a wrong perception of their role.