Integration of the Client Self-Care Commitment Model in a dental hygiene curriculum

This exploratory study investigated whether integration of the Client Self-Care Commitment Model (CSCCM) Instructional Module in a dental hygiene curriculum, as an additional educational experience, would further enhance students' client-centred knowledge, values and actions.

Subjects (n = 26) were second-year students enrolled in a BS entry-level dental hygiene programme with random assignments to two groups. The experimental group participated in a 2-h didactic session, an 8-h preclinical session, an 8-h clinical session and a 1-h question and answer period. An online pretest-post-test survey administered at three time intervals (baseline, 3 and 6 weeks) was used to measure differences between the groups on three subscales (knowledge, values and actions).

Cronbach's α for each subscale across time was above 0.90. A repeated-measures anova determined that there were no statistically significant interactions between Time and Group (experimental or control group) for the knowledge and values variables; however, there was a significant interaction between Time (P = 0.003) and Group (P = 0.033) for the actions variable. A content analysis of participants' responses to three open-ended questions reflected both positive and negative comments and revealed that students' primary barrier to implementing the model in client care was lack of time.

Significant differences in the actions variable between the groups suggested that implementation of the CSCCM Instructional Module enhanced students' client-centred actions during client care.