Early patient contact in undergraduate dental education in Germany--'The Greifswald Model'.

Full Abstract

Revised regulations in Germany have allowed new curricular concepts to be introduced into the undergraduate dental curriculum. In the first 2 years of the dental curriculum at the University of Greifswald, a new teaching concept which is based on the interactions between Community Medicine and Dentistry has been introduced. It emphasises the importance of early patient contact in providing experience for students. The course consists of three principal elements:
student-patient contacts in the patient's home; problem-based learning tutorials to discuss patient cases; and special training in communication skills. The aim of the course is to give students an insight into the patient's view of the illness and treatment, and the effect of their condition on his or her lifestyle. The students also learn about the communal perspective (health survey, intervention planning and implementation in a community). The first four courses were evaluated by questionnaires from the students before and after the 2-year course to assess the concept from the students' perspective. The results indicate that it is possible to provide considerable improvement of the medical/dental education as regards communication skills and understanding of the patients' perceptions, by letting the student establish contact with patients at the very beginning of the curriculum.

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Author information

Author/s: Ratzmann, A (A); Wiesmann, U (U); Gedrange, T (T); Kordass, B (B);

Affiliation: Department of Orthodontics, Faculty of Dentistry, Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University, Greifswald, Germany. anja.ratzmann@uni-greifswald.de

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Evaluation Studies; Journal Article

Journal: European journal of dental education : official journal of the Association for Dental Education in Europe (Eur J Dent Educ), published in Denmark. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2007-May; vol 11 (issue 2) : pp 93-8

Dates: Created 2007/04/20; Completed 2007/06/12;

PMID: 17445005, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

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