Teaching Communication Skills to Undergraduate Dental Students: Recommended Teaching Strategy

Background: A private dental practice, in order to be viable, requires patients who are loyal, dentally educated, and, as a result, prepared to invest in comprehensive dentistry. However, a vital, yet often underestimated prerequisite for creating a loyal, dentally educated patient is the dentist's ability to communicate effectively with a patient. Objective: The objective of the study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the teaching strategy to teach relational communication skills. Methods: The methodology employed during the study enhanced a student-centered, problem-oriented learning approach by means of an experiential learning strategy complemented by a didactic teaching strategy (ATF-strategy). Design: The teaching strategy was designed in three phases: (i) Affectively stimulate students: Video recordings and evaluation of 3rd dental students' base line communication skills with a standardised patient (SP); (ii) Presenting the theory: Developing students' communication skills by means of a didactic lecture and role playing a structured interview with peers; (iii) Opportunity to functionalise: Role playing a structured interview with a SP and evaluation of students' newly developed communication skills by means of video recordings. Results: (a) Quantitative feedback: both male and female students, as well as the class as a whole, scored significantly higher during training cycle 2 than training cycle 1 (p < 0.0001) for five of the six dimensions of the Rubric (except Dimension: “Opening the interview”). This confirms the effectiveness of the teaching strategy to develop 3rd year dental students' relational communication skills. Both male and female students rated the appropriateness of the teaching methods employed during the study, rather high (4.18 and 4.26 on a five-point Likert scale, respectively). Conclusion: The ATF-teaching strategy employed for teaching 3rd year dental undergraduate students relational communication skills, proofed to be an effective strategy and was perceived by the students as a valuable and appropriate strategy.