Towards standardized clinical training: Developing an integrated clinical curriculum for dental trainees in a hospital of stomatology

Abstract Objective In order to standardize the teaching criterion and improve the quality of clinical training between different dental trainees, an integrated clinical curriculum was developed since September 2014 in the Hospital of Stomatology, Fujian Medical University of China. This article aimed to introduce the development of this curriculum and evaluate the dental trainees’ view on the curriculum. Methods and analysis A six-step approach was used to develop the curriculum. Dental trainees (n=142) rated the curriculum with satisfaction scores on a Likert-type scale and answered several open-ended questions. One-way ANOVA and Fisher's exact probabilities were utilized to analyzed satisfaction scores among four types of dental trainees. Results The mean satisfaction scores was 7.96 (out of 10). There was no significant difference in satisfaction scores among four types of dental trainees (P=0.209) and between the two genders (P=0.233). 91.55% of the dental trainees reckoned that the curriculum was valuable to their clinical training. There was no significant differences among the four types of dental trainees in terms of helpfulness to promote and standardize their clinical skills training (P=0.828). Conclusions The present findings suggest that the dental trainees appreciated the integrated clinical curriculum. This integrated curriculum is considered suitable for current condition of dental clinical training in China.