Impact of Procedural Simulation on Learning and Satisfaction of Tunisian Dental Students

Abstract

Nowadays, traditional university training via lectures seems no longer to correspond to the current needs of society. The demand for quality and the growing ethical demand, as well as the fear of risk and its legal implications, now require a minimum acquisition of the gesture practice before its realization on the patient himself, by virtue of the founding ethical principle of teaching by simulation: "never the first time on the patient". The dental student is required to provide care and perform technical acts on patients and must be operational in his practice at the end of his university course.

From this perspective, simulation-based learning is increasingly becoming an essential teaching form in higher education, both in initial and continuing training.

In this context, the present study was carried out at the removable partial denture (RPD) department of the oral medicine and surgery clinic of Monastir (Tunisia) in order to explore the impact of procedural simulation on the learning of technical gestures related to the rest seat preparations for metallic RPD. We included 74 4th year dental medicine students, the assessment of students' acquisitions was carried out by comparing the results of pre-tests and post-tests, and an observation grid was specially designed to measure the mastery of technical performance relating to dental preparations acquired by students following the procedural simulation session.

An anonymous satisfaction questionnaire was also completed by the students at the end of the session.