Effectiveness of a web-based child protection training programme designed for dental practitioners in Saudi Arabia: a...

Safeguarding children is an integral part of dental training and practice. The purpose of this research was to evaluate a web-based training program in child protection on dental practitioners' knowledge and practice in Saudi Arabia. In addition, participants' views of the course were also assessed.

Pre-, immediately post-training, and one month post-training knowledge and self reported behaviour were assessed following completion of an online training course in child protection by 82 dental practitioners working in Saudi Arabia.

Eighty-two participants completed the whole training package and 62 completed the one month post-training survey. A significant increase in knowledge was found immediately after taking part in the child protection training program in comparison to baseline knowledge (P < 0.001). The course was highly rated by those who completed it. At one month following the training program, 21% have or intend to adopt a child protection policy in their practice, 29% identified a staff member to lead on child protection since completing the program, almost all participants have been aware of child abuse and neglect (CAN) signs in their daily practice and 27.4% have made a report of a suspected case of CAN in the last month since the training.

The web-based training program in child protection was appraised positively and was effective in increasing knowledge and changing attitudes towards safeguarding children.