The Role of Interprofessional Education in Dentistry Training: Understanding the Perception of Brazilian Dental...

Guaranteeing the delivery of high-quality and safe healthcare to persons, families and communities is the main objective of interprofessional education (IPE).

To understand, based on the perception of Brazilian dental students, the role of IPE in Dentistry training.

This study used a qualitative phenomenological approach. The study included 41 students who completed IPE activity in practice settings of the Brazilian National Health System, between 2012 and 2019. Data collection included an online questionnaire and semistructured interviews. Through content analysis, themes/categories were identified.

The IPE activity was recognised as an isolated experience within the students' education, revealing the predominantly uniprofessional characteristic of the curriculum. It promoted learnings connected with contents present in the Dentistry curriculum, such as teamwork, health system, social determinants of the health-disease process and person/family/community-centred care. It enabled different professions to learn together and to have contact with persons/families, developing professional-patient empathy. Integrative pedagogy enabled students to seek knowledge autonomously and develop skills to construct more symmetric relationships between professions. In the students' perception, the interprofessional activities should be incorporated throughout the dental curriculum. Barriers in communication and connection between the knowledge of different professions were associated with the voluntary (elective) and isolated characteristic of IPE in the curriculum.

The study provided evidence that IPE in health services succeeds in developing professional identity, collaborative competencies for teamwork and empathy in dental education. Complementary studies analysing the contributions of IPE in different moments of the education and professional practice of the dentist are recommended.