Predictive validity of dental hygiene competency assessment measures on one-shot clinical licensure examinations

The purpose of this study was to examine the predictive validity of traditional and nontraditional dental hygiene competency assessment measures on one-shot clinical licensure examinations in a baccalaureate dental hygiene program. Traditional assessment data including overall grade point average (GPA), Clinical GPA, National Board Dental Hygiene Examination (NBDHE) scores, and Central Regional Dental Testing Service (CRDTS) scores along with nontraditional assessment data in the form of Portfolio scores were collected from seventy-four students. Factor analysis and subsequent linear regression modeling were used to explore the ability of four variables (Overall GPA, NBDHE, Portfolios, and Clinical GPA) to predict one-shot clinical licensure examination (CRDTS) scores. A two-factor solution was obtained with one factor defined as dental hygiene cognition and the second factor defined as dental hygiene clinical performance. Factor scores were subsequently used in a linear predictive model to assess the shared and unique contribution of factors to the one-shot clinical licensure examination score. The shared contribution of both factors only accounted for 13.9 percent of variance in the outcome measure of one-shot clinical licensure examination scores. The lack of concordance between previously validated measures of dental hygiene student competency or predictors of student success (Overall GPA, NBDHE, and Portfolios) and a one-shot clinical licensure examination (CRDTS) raises serious concern about the validity of our current dental hygiene licensing procedure which uses the CRDTS clinical examination to make decisions about granting licenses to practice.