Opinions of DCPs and DCP students on outreach teaching

Objectives: Outreach teaching/ community based clinical training is now an established part of undergraduate dental school training programmes in the United Kingdom. While there has been much interest in the role of outreach training programmes in the development of dental students, there has been very little information collected on the importance of this form of dental training for Dental Care Professionals (DCPs). DCPs include both dental hygienists and dental therapists. Over the past five years, there has been expansion in both the scope of practice for DCPs and numbers of DCPs trained within the United Kingdom. Therefore, the aim is to report the feedback and evaluation of DCPs and DCPs students on their experience at the St David's outreach teaching programme at Cardiff. Methods: A questionnaire was distributed to the current DCP class (n=8) at Cardiff University, and mailed to graduated DCPs of the classes of 2004 and 2007 (n=31). This questionnaire included both ‘open' and ‘closed' questions, and sought information in relation to their experiences and opinions of their training at the St David's Primary Dental Care Unit at Cardiff. Responses were returned anonymously. Results: Twenty-one questionnaires were returned (response rate= 54%). Seventeen respondents (81%) reported their confidence in performing scaling procedures had increased following their time at the outreach teaching centre. Fifteen respondents (71%) reported that their confidence at administering local anaesthetic had increased. One respondent commented that their time at the outreach teaching centre had “…given us more independence and allow us to make more decisions on our own…” Conclusion: The results of this pilot investigation indicate that outreach training is advantageous to DCP training. Further investigation of the role of outreach training in DCP training is indicated.