Dental students' ability to locate emergency equipment-lessons learned from aviation

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the dental student's ability to locate medical emergency equipment/items at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry clinic.

A total of 138 second-year dental students (traditional group) participated in this study as part of a simulation-based medical emergencies rotation course held during the winter term of 2014 and 2015. Without prior training, students were tested on their ability to locate nine predetermined items on the clinic floor using a self-reported checklist. Six months later, a convenience sample of 18 students (novel group) from the same cohort were later trained on their location and retested individually.

Of the 138 students tested, only 10.14% students could locate seven of the nine items when compared to 100% in the novel group. Only 5.07% of students in the traditional group could locate all items initially, compared with 72.22% students in the novel group.

Whilst our students have lecture-based knowledge about medical emergencies, the results of our study identified a gap of knowledge of emergency equipment/item location amongst students. Therefore, an intervention performed with a similar group of second-year dental students supported that proper training may be used to achieve retention of knowledge. Based on our "novel group" results, we have incorporated targeted training in the dental curriculum that leads to students being better prepared in locating emergency equipment/items. This study suggests that other populations, such as faculty or staff, may also benefit from hands-on training.