Characterization of tasks and time efficiency of dental hygiene students during clinical training

Details

• Alternative Title:
  J Dent Hyg
• Personal Author:
  Fang, Yiyang ; Tung, Kryztopher D. ; Beleno-Sanchez, Joan ; Forrest, Jane L. ; Roll, Shawn C.
• Description:
  Purpose:
  
  The purpose of this study was to characterize the duration of dental hygiene activities and tasks and explore efficiency within appointments by students in educational programs.
  
  Methods:
  
  Right-handed female dental hygiene students were recruited from two educational programs. Each participant was video recorded during 3 patient visits, once per term, over 3 consecutive terms. Activities, tasks, and student postures and positions were coded across the patient visit. Descriptive analyses were conducted to characterize overall durations and distributions across each category. Time spent on non-dental hygiene related activities was compared to other durations, as well as across the training time points and by patient type.
  
  Results:
  
  Fifty-three videos were analyzed from nineteen students. The average patient visit length was 155.06 ± 35.63 minutes; approximately half the visit was dedicated to instrumentation activities. Nearly 20% of the visit was categorized as activities or tasks unrelated to education or patient care. Although most participants completed patient visits more quickly by the third time point, the percentage of non-dental hygiene activities did not decrease, and there was no association between patient category type and duration of patient visit.
  
  Conclusion:
  
  Patient visits were roughly three times the length of typical clinic visit, indicating a disconnect between training and practice. In addition to spending more time on hand scaling tasks, participants spent a lot of time on equipment setup and interacting with or waiting for faculty members. These findings have implications for improving efficiency in educational settings, particularly to facilitate successful transition to clinical practice.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Appointments And Schedules Article Dental Hygiene Students Dental Hygienists Education Ergonomics Faculty Female Humans Oral Hygiene Students Task Analysis

  More +
• Source:
  J Dent Hyg. 94(5):30-37
• Pubmed ID:
  33008947
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC7534457
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 OH010665/OH/NIOSH CDC HHSUnited States/ ; R01OH010665/ACL/ACL HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  94
• Issue:
  5
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:d80fcf2d5fa862e47e83e68d24e08c0141769b7668ba901409ef004b1b2be4a5
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/94885/cdc_94885_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 321.22 KB ]