Study on critical thinking, clinical practice satisfaction, and clinical performance of dental hygiene students

Abstract

Objectives: This study was conducted to test the critical thinking tendency, clinical practice satisfaction, and clinical performance, and analyze the factors impacting clinical practice satisfaction and clinical performance of dental hygiene students. Methods: The study conducted a written survey during the period between 30 July ~20 August 2019, among 3rd and 4th year dental hygiene students from Seoul, Gyung-gi region, who had taken clinical practice courses. Using SPSS 22.0 program (IBM SPSS statistics, New York, USA), the study analyzed the final 174 cases. Results: Dental hygiene students scored 3.33±0.43, 3.48±0.83, and 3.30±0.58 for critical thinking, clinical practice satisfaction, and clinical performance, respectively. The clinical thinking score was higher when their study performance was good (p<0.001), clinical practice satisfaction was higher when their major satisfaction was satisfactory (p<0.001), higher when their relationship with their clinical practice partner was good, and the clinical performance was better when the students’ major satisfaction was good (p<0.001). The study performance yielded better results when their study achievement was better (p<0.05). Clinical practice satisfaction (r=0.156) and clinical performance (r=0.393) showed a positive correlation with critical thinking, and clinical performance had a positive correlation with clinical practice satisfaction. The impact factor for clinical practice satisfaction appeared to be clinical performance (p<0.05) and major satisfaction (p<0.001), and the factors impacting the clinical performance were among the sub-causes of critical thinking (p<0.05), intellectual fairness (p<0.05), watchfulness (p<0.05), clinical practice satisfaction (p<0.05), and major satisfaction (p<0.01). Conclusions: Results of the study showed that for dental hygiene students, critical thinking, clinical practice satisfaction, clinical performance, and major satisfaction were the impact factors affecting the students’ clinical performance. Therefore, the study recommends that development of educational programs and operation of a field-based curriculum is necessary to improve critical thinking, clinical practice satisfaction, and major satisfaction.

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