Implementation of a communication curriculum in undergraduate dental education-students' opinions during a 5-year development phase

Introduction: Communication training has become an essential part of the dental curriculum. The aim of this study was to evaluate the communication curriculum developed and introduced 2016-2021 at the University of Bern, School of Dental Medicine (SDM), Switzerland. Materials and Methods: The curriculum was implemented cumulatively in three phases: (1) lectures and accompanying role plays, (2) forum theatre and trainer-based communication training and (3) self-assessment. Students were surveyed 2016-2021 at the end of each semester using anonymous online questionnaires with five-point Likert scales (0-4). Results: A total of 191 fourth-and fifth-year students were surveyed, and 165 (86.4%) questionnaires were analysed. The mean age of the participants was 24.2 +/- 1.4 and 45.5% were female. While students' opinions about the need to communicate increased during weekly lectures in phase 1, their opinions about their ability to communicate simultaneously decreased. During phase 2, fourth-year students' opinions on the need to communicate with dental patients increased from 3.22 +/- 0.61 to 3.73 +/- 0.45 ( p =.001), anticipated benefits for dentists increased from 2.78 +/- 0.71 to 3.43 +/- 0.57 (p =.001) and for patients from 3.00 +/- 0.76 to 3.47 +/- 0.63 (p =.022). Only in phase 3, opinions on the ability to communicate statistically significantly increased for both fourth-( 2.34 +/- 0.71 to 2.72 +/- 0.60, p =.033) and fifth-year (2.20 +/- 0.63 to 2.86 +/- 0.59, p =.001) students. Preferred teaching and assessment methods were trainer-based communication trainings (73.1%), lectures (67.3%) and self-assessments in the student clinic (59.6%). Conclusion: Communication curricula in dental education using methods such as lectures and trainer-based communication trainings may additionally need to include self-assessments to be effective from the students' perspective.