Survey of Extramural Dental Clinical Rotation Programs in North America

Methods: A cross-sectional survey design was adopted for this survey. A survey instrument was developed and IRB approval was obtained. This instrument was validated with dental school faculty and was posted on ‘surveymonkey.com'. Academic Deans of 67 dental schools in North America, contacted through the ADEA Academic Dean's Listserve, were invited to participate in the survey with a cover letter describing the purpose of the survey and instructions to access the survey website. One reminder email was sent to all participants. Summary statistics were obtained.

Results: Of the 67 dental schools, 23 schools completed the survey for a response rate of 34%. Among respondents, 91.3% of dental schools replied that ECR programs were a mandatory requirement for graduation. Of the ECR sites used by dental schools, 87% were community health center/ federally qualified health centers, 44% were free clinics, 61% were private practices, 17% were nursing homes, 44% were hospital settings, 61% were sites serving special health care needs populations. Half of the respondents indicated that they had plans to increase the time students spend on ECR and 96% did not have any revenue sharing agreements with ECR sites. Outcomes of ECR were tracked with perception/attitude of students before rotations (52%) and after rotations (91%) and practice preference upon graduation (46%).

Conclusion: In spite of the usefulness of ECR's to dental education, there are numerous variations in program structure between dental schools. While many dental schools have ECR programs with longer durations, there still are dental schools with minimal ECR programs.