Satisfaction with Clinical Skills Training Among General Dentistry Graduates Taking the Dentistry Residency Exam in 2019 in Iran

One method for the assessment of dentistry curricula is to evaluate dentistry graduateschr('39') satisfaction with their acquired clinical skills. Given the lack of data on this subject at the national level, this study aimed to evaluate the satisfaction with clinical skills training in general dentistry graduates in Iran.

This cross-sectional descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 614 general dentistry graduates participating in the dentistry residency exam in 2019 in Iran. Data were collected using a questionnaire consisting of three sections. The validity and reliability of the designed questionnaire were approved using statistical tests. The questionnaires were distributed among the participants before the residency exam. After collecting the completed questionnaires, their data were extracted and analyzed in SPSS-26 using Mann-Whitney’s U-test and the Kruskal-Wallis test to compare the distribution of satisfaction according to entrance year and university type.

The response rate was 100%, which must be because the questionnaires were distributed during the residency exam session. According to the participants, the highest level of satisfaction with the practical skills acquired pertained to pediatric dentistry (76.5%), operative dentistry (71.4%) and radiology (64.7%), and the lowest pertained to endodontics (38.1%), orthodontics (41.9%) and oral maxillofacial pathology (45.3%).

Overall, the general dentistry graduateschr('39') satisfaction with the acquired skills was above average (more than 50%) in most of the skills. Nevertheless, entrance year, practical skills and faculties had a significant impact on the level of satisfaction.