Patient Feedback on Orthodontic Therapist Student Outreach Training

The introduction of orthodontic therapists as a new group of dental care professionals (DCPs) requires that their training in specialist orthodontic practices has provision for monitoring the level of supervision and clinical care provided by the students. The University of Warwick Diploma in Orthodontic Therapy programme has developed a patient questionnaire with the aim of assessing the patient's perception of the student. The observational questionnaire was designed to cover the four General Dental Council (GDC) domains and learning outcomes for orthodontic therapists, such that patient response could potentially provide valuable feedback to support the training programme. Each of the 10 students had 30 questionnaires to complete. The questionnaire was anonymous and it was designed to be suitable for both young patients and their carers to complete in less than five minutes. The response rate was very high, with 291 of the 300 questionnaires being completed. The level of co-operation may have been partly due to the ease of completion of the questionnaire, but might suggest the willingness to provide supportive feedback for the students. This study provided formative feedback to students' educational and clinical development without impacting on a student's clinical activity and will be used to develop further assessment tools.