title: Dental students' self-perceived communication skills for patient motivation.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The aim of this study was to evaluate dental students' self-perceived communication skills for patient motivation over the course of their training.
  
  
  METHODS
  Pre-clinical and clinical dental students at the University of Bern School of Dental Medicine were surveyed annually from 2008 to 2011 utilising a written questionnaire. Self-reported data were pooled from all classes per time-point in the curriculum.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 157 students were surveyed from five classes with an overall response rate of 94.8%. A total of 393 questionnaires were available for analysis. The self-perceived skill-sets for general patient care and patient communication were rated at the end of the first clinical year with mean Visual Analog Scale values of 75.0 ± 1.6 and 75.1 ± 1.5, respectively. During the second clinical year, the self-perceived skills increased in both patient care (82.5 ± 1.2, P = 0.0004) and patient communication (81.4 ± 1.4, P = 0.0034). The students rated their competence higher when providing oral hygiene instructions as opposed to motivating patients to quit tobacco use, modify their diet or employ stress-reduction strategies (P < 0.005). At the end of the pre-clinical year, 74.5% of the students expressed interest in receiving more extensive communication training (P < 0.004).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Though dental students in this study demonstrated a steady increase in their level of comfort motivating patients to utilise oral hygiene instructions, they also expressed the desire for more motivational training early in their curriculum. Therefore, these results may indicate the need to enhance communications training in patient motivation on all behavioural aspects early in the dental curriculum.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Rindlisbacher
authors.affiliation: School of Allied Health, Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Carbondale, IL, USA.
authors.forename: J M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Davis
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: C A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Ramseier
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001294:Attitude to Health; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D004497:Education, Dental; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009042:Motivation; D057566:Self Report; D012647:Self-Assessment; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D013557:Switzerland
keywords: brief intervention; communication skills; oral hygiene instructions; patient motivation; tobacco use cessation