Role-play in Endodontic Teaching: a Case Study

Objective: To investigate the role of the application of role-play in endodontic study in improving the communication skills of Chinese dental undergraduates prior to their direct interactions with patients at the Fourth Military Medical University's School of Stomatology, China.Methods: Students were recruited from the 5-year bachelor's programme (n = 36) and randomly divided into six groups, and from the 8-year DDS programme (n = 10) and randomly divided into two groups to participate in the role-play training. Cases selected randomly from the case pool were distributed to the groups. The teacher gave an outline of the roles in the simulation. Each member of each group randomly selected their own role for the role-play. Four types of surveys were distributed to students and faculty members at different points after the role-plays had taken place, to evaluate their attitude towards the use of role-plays in endodontic study. Frequency analysis and a one sample t test were used to describe and analyse students' acceptance of role-play as a teaching technique. The level of statistical significance was set at P < 0.05.Results: Students' performance and satisfaction as well as the supporting faculty responses were very favourable towards role-playing. In total, 93.5% of students responded favourably to the role-play, answering 'strongly agree' or 'agree' to the positive statements about their role-play performance. A total of 95.1% of students stated that they had benefited psychologically and technically from the role-play ('strongly agree' or 'agree') after their 1-year rotating internship.Conclusion: The application of role-play in endodontic study is an effective way of educating Chinese dental undergraduates and can be beneficial for their transition from students to dentists.

目的：在中国第四军医大学口腔医学院，研究角色扮演在牙髓病学学习中的应用在提高中国口腔医学本科生在与患者直接互动之前的沟通技能方面所起的作用。 方法：从五年制本科课程（n = 36）中招募学生，并随机分为6组，从八年制口腔医学博士（DDS）课程（n = 10）中招募学生，并随机分为2组参加角色扮演培训。从病例库中随机选取病例分发给各小组。教师给出模拟中的角色大纲。每个小组的成员随机选择自己在角色扮演中的角色。在角色扮演之后的不同时间点向学生和教职员工发放四种类型的调查问卷，以评估他们对在牙髓病学学习中使用角色扮演的态度。使用频率分析和单样本t检验来描述和分析学生对角色扮演作为一种教学技术的接受程度。统计学显著性水平设定为P < 0.05。 结果：学生的表现和满意度以及支持性的教师反馈对角色扮演都非常有利。总共有93.5%的学生对角色扮演给予了积极回应，对关于他们角色扮演表现的积极陈述回答“非常同意”或“同意”。共有95.1%的学生表示在他们为期1年的轮转实习后，他们从角色扮演中在心理和技术上都有所受益（“非常同意”或“同意”）。 结论：在牙髓病学学习中应用角色扮演是教育中国口腔医学本科生的一种有效方式，并且对他们从学生到牙医的转变有益。