Avaliação da habilidade do aluno de Odontologia frente às situações-problema em Odontopediatria

Abstract

The goal of this study was to evaluate the student's ability to deal with problem situations in Pediatric Dentistry. The research universe was consisted by dentistry students enrolled in the seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth periods. The data collection instrument was a self-administered quiz with ten problem situations with a Lickert Scale of 1 to 7 points representing levels of self-confidence (in which 1 to 3 represented inadequate skills, 4 not always adequate skills and 5 to 7 appropriate skills). A total of 120 students participated of the study, of which 44 (36.67%) and 76 (63.83%) were male and female, respectively. The results showed that for seven of the ten problem situations presented, the student considered his skill not always adequate, but that he was able to deal with childish behavior half the time that it occurred and that in three the student considered that his skills were adequate and he was able to deal with childish behavior whenever he was observed. No statistically significant difference was observed between the values of the analyzed variables (Mann-Whitney U test, p<0.05). According to the results obtained it was possible to conclude that the student's skills are not always considered adequate in relation to the problem situations in Pediatric Dentistry.