Students as Partners in Dental Education: Comparing Co-Designed, Co-Delivered and Traditional Approaches to Mouthcare...

To compare Students-as-Partners (SaP) and traditional (TRAD) approaches for teaching dental students to promote mouthcare for people with disabilities.

A two-group, pre-post quasi-experimental design was used to compare TRAD and SaP training. Both approaches included didactic and practical components; SaP was co-designed and co-delivered, incorporating synchronous and asynchronous elements. Self-efficacy and intention scores (0-10) related to mouthcare provision were analysed. Descriptive statistics were calculated by training approach and time point. A between-subjects factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) examined main effects of training approach, timepoint, and student group, and their interactions. Pre- and post-training responses were analysed as independent observations. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05.

Data from 220 valid questionnaires were analysed. Across all outcomes, a significant main effect of timepoint was observed, with higher post-training self-efficacy and intention scores. No significant effects of training approach or interactions with timepoint were observed, indicating similar patterns across groups.

Both TRAD and SaP groups showed higher post-training self-efficacy and intention scores, with no statistically significant differences between approaches; however, this should not be interpreted as evidence of equivalence. These findings suggest that SaP may be implemented without compromising observed scores.