PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCES, TRAINING ATTITUDES AND EXPECTATIONS OF RESIDENTS IN DENTISTRY: A NATIONWIDE SURVEY

Worldwide, it has been acknowledged that feedback from students and trainees is important for evaluation of training. However, there is limited data on the professional experiences, expectations and attitude of residents in dentistry to their training.

This study aimed to analyse the professional experiences, expectations, and attitudes of dentistry residents to training in Nigeria.

Cross-sectional study.

All the accredited Nigerian Teaching Hospitals with dental surgeons undergoing residency training in any of the 10 specialties examined in West Africa.

The study was conducted through a self- administered closed anonymous 46-items questionnaire adapted from that used for general surgery residents in the United States of America. The collected data included various aspects of the technical, human and professional domains of the expectations, attitudes and perceptions of dental residents to their training. Data from the questionnaires were collated and entered into Microsoft Excel version 10, 2002 (Microsoft, Redmond, WA, USA) and processed using STATA software (StataCorp LLC, Texas, USA). Categorical variables were calculated as proportions and percentages with 95% corresponding intervals. χ2 - test was used to analyse the association between selected demographic characteristics and some of the responses. Fischer's exact test was done where necessary. Statistical significance was set at p≤0.05 and tests were two- sided.

Nigeria has 11 accredited training institutions for residency in dentistry, of which 214 residents participated representing 93% of the estimated total. Most were males (133, 65.2%) with male to female ratio of 1.9:1. Residents aged between 30-34 years of age made up 41.5% while 77.4% were married. Close to one third (31.8%) were residents in oral and maxillofacial surgery. Residents expressed low level of satisfaction with the quality of residency training (64, 30.3%; 95% CI 24.5-36.9) and believe that they had appropriate level of operating skill from their training (96, 45.3%; 95% CI 38.6-52.1). Few agreed that the training programme had adequate support structures for struggling residents (64, 30.3%; 95% CI 24.5-36.9) but many (105, 65.2%; 95% CI 57.5-72.2) felt the residency programme took too long. More males (31.8%) than females (14.9%) expressed satisfaction with the level of didactic teaching during the residency programme with statistically significant difference (p=0.032). Orthodontic residents expressed the greatest approval (54.5%) for the support structures put by the training programme for struggling residents, while the least were in oral medicine (12.5%) with high statistically significant difference (p=0.014). The level of support from faculty/departmental member to struggling resident was felt to be most adequate by those who had passed the primaries exam (69.5%) with statistically significant difference from other residents (p= 0.021).

Overall, this study showed that Nigerian dentistry residents had low level of satisfaction with the quality of their training indicating the need for a holistic review of the training curriculum and conduct of trainers. There is need to reinforce motivating and tackle demotivating factors identified in this study to improve the response of dentistry residents to their training as these would improve the value of competency assessments undertaken by the postgraduate colleges while sustaining interest in the profession for the interest of the wider society.