Enhancing Dental Students' Understanding of Poverty Through Simulation

Area of Science:

• Dental Education
• Public Health
• Socioeconomic Determinants of Health

Background:

• Dental students require understanding of barriers faced by low-income patients to provide equitable care.
• Patient-centered care necessitates empathy towards the challenges of underserved populations.
• Traditional dental education may not adequately prepare students for the realities of patient socioeconomic circumstances.

Purpose of the Study:

• To assess the impact of a poverty simulation on dental students' comprehension of low-income families' daily challenges.
• To evaluate changes in dental students' understanding of financial pressures, difficult choices, and emotional stressors related to poverty.
• To determine if the simulation improved students' awareness of community resource utilization by impoverished families.

Main Methods:

• An experiential poverty simulation, based on the Community Action Poverty Simulation (CAPS) model, was implemented with third-year dental students.
• Students were assigned roles within simulated low-income family units to experience various hardships.
• A retrospective pretest-posttest design was used to measure changes in student understanding across five domains.

Main Results:

• Student understanding across five domains (financial pressures, difficult choices, improving situation, emotional stressors, community resources) increased significantly, ranging from 58% to 74%.
• A high percentage of students found the simulation valuable (74% in 2015, 88% in 2016).
• The study highlighted the importance of contextualizing poverty-related challenges within the framework of dental care access.

Conclusions:

• Poverty simulations are an effective pedagogical tool for enhancing dental students' empathy and understanding of socioeconomic barriers to care.
• Experiential learning can foster a more patient-centered approach in future dental professionals.
• Addressing the social determinants of health is crucial for improving oral health equity.