Clinical Dental Hygiene (DH) Faculty Perceptions of Students Teaching Students

Methods: To assist first-year DH students with initial patient experiences, senior DH students were selected as peer teachers. Students were informed that peer teachers would not be involved in direct grading but were available to answer questions, give suggestions, and provide support. Three years after implementation of this program, faculty was asked to evaluate the peer teaching experience. A seven-item Likert-style survey was presented with responses ranging from "strongly agree" to "strongly disagree." Three additional open-ended questions were included to allow faculty to make comments regarding both positive and negative aspects of this experience and to suggest ways it could be improved.

Results: Nine of ten clinic faculty completed the survey. Favorable responses were indicated 100% of the time for six of seven items. The statement "The peer teacher was dressed appropriately for teaching in the clinic setting" was responded to negatively by one faculty person. Faculty felt the presence of peer teachers allowed the faculty to spend more time providing one-on-one teaching, in particular, assistance with instrumentation. The most frequent suggestion for improvement was to have peer teachers available during all first-year DH clinic sessions.

Conclusions: The use of peer teachers in clinic was well received and overwhelmingly supported by the DH faculty. Faculty felt students and faculty benefited from student peer teacher instruction. Faculty indicated the availability of peer teachers during all clinic sessions would enhance first-year DH students' clinic experience. They identified dental and periodontal charting, record completion and clinic protocol as areas in which peer teachers provided significant assistance. The results of this survey parallels the results of similar student surveys conducted over the last three years.