H. H. BOIKO

Department of Dentistry of the Postgraduate Education Division of State Institution “Dnipropetrovsk Medical Academy of Ukrainian Ministry of Health”

TRAINING OF A FOREIGN DENTAL SURGEON UNDER THE MASTER’S DEGREE PROGRAM AT THE DEPARTMENT OF DENTISTRY

The training of dental surgeons under the master’s degree program is determined not only by necessity to train the highly skilled specialists but also intended to create a strong-minded doctor who can size up the task appropriately and find the ways to solve it by himself.

An independent study plays a leading role in it. A scientific research activity, namely training of an academic researcher who will be able to carry out scientific researches in the future, to be a candidate to study under the postgraduate training program and to defend a research paper upon completion the master’s degree program is one of the methods of the independent study.

A tree-year dental surgery master’s degree program includes theoretical course of training, practical course of training, allied subjects, scientific research activity, annual reports on work performed, reports at meetings of the department and board of studies of the faculty.

When we began our work with masters from the non-CIS countries we noted a prominently low level of general education, a language barrier which demands a special approach and attention in the course of the subject teaching.

Individualization is one of the important means of activation of foreign master training. In other words, a level of his basic training of skills and knowledge are taken into consideration and some corrections in curriculum are accepted in the training schedule. One should take into account not only a level of training but also his propensities and psychophysical background.

Masters upgraded their level of theoretical training providing compulsory attendance of lectures, took an active part in seminars, research-to-practice conferences, meetings of academic community of dental surgeons in accordance with the curriculum.

Lectures on the main subjects were distinctive in that the main task of the lecturer was not only to state all facts and knowledge in some sections but to select the main and essential things on the topic that took up to 45 minutes. And further the lecturer emphasized the illustration of practical events, study of situations, not fake but real ones from the medical histories of patients treated at the basic department of surgery.

The teaching process under the master’s degree program is built so that a considerable part of practical work is performed by a master himself under the guidance of lecturer and clinical discussion, management of patient, providing of surgical dental care constitute the fundamental pillar of the practical training.

We directed much attention in the course of dental surgery master’s degree training to independent medical activity. It should be noted that a linguistic barrier of foreign master is not so significant but there were big problems in writing and it needed additional knowledge for writing of surgical records, medical histories etc. A lecturer affords an opportunity to a master to think over a pathogenesis of a specific disease, to describe independently a physical status, to determine a provisional diagnosis, to direct reasonably the stream of thought, to correct them, in order to come up with a proper solution concerning the examination plan, establishing a clinical diagnosis and selection of therapeutic approach. In the course of work with patients with various severity of disease we tried to underline that a surgeon bears heavy responsibility to a patient and his/her relatives.

We attached great importance to interrelations with colleagues of the department as well as to physiological atmosphere and respect in the course of work at the basic department with foreign masters.

Thus, master has sufficient possibility to independent and free substantiation of diagnosis, differential diagnostics, determination of detailed plan of therapeutic measures, surgical interventions, and rehabilitation of a specific patient.

As to the elective surgeries, a master interprets independently the analyses, participates in clinical discussion for surgery, and offers his opinion concerning a surgery schedule. The advisor herewith corrects gracefully (in the form of thought) or confirms the accuracy of his thoughts.

The master also takes part in advisory reception of patients performed by his advisor, other lecturer or head of department. He has a possibility to hear the patient’s complaints, examine him, make physical examination, take part in tissue recovery for cytological screening, write out a referral for advice of other doctor.

An oncologic alarm is especially instilled in masters. They must carefully examine a tunica mucosa of mouth, lips and skin, pay attention to the presence of lymphadenopathy, bone deformity and neoplasms.

Taking into consideration that master of dental surgery will be able to treat patients in department of surgery of dental polyclinic in the future, we arranged the teaching process in such a way that outpatient surgical procedures to be performed by the master himself under the supervision of a lecturer. A clinical discussion of specific case was preliminary made; then master described a surgery scheme, selected relevant medical tools, selected local anesthesia with modern anesthetic agents, performed anesthesia and surgery.

We pay special attention to emergency medical care in case of emergencies during the whole practical activity in dental surgery clinic. A master must practice clearly a clinical performance and diagnostic of emergencies, know schemes for providing an emergency medical care in case of anaphylaxis, hypertensive crisis, collapse, shock of any origin etc.

The topic of a research scientific paper is created in the context of presentation of problem to be dealt with by a future doctor in accordance with a type of job. After the topic of the research scientific paper had been selected, we carried out an analysis of medical histories of thematic patients treated in the hospital during the last three years. The analysis of the age of patients, type of their activities, place of residence in the relevant district of industrial region, diagnosis, treatment procedures was made by master independently according to the schedule developed by us. The study of literary sources on that topic was performed at the same time. We found a substantial aid concerning this matter in our curriculum office where a large collection of literature, methodological guidelines, author’s abstracts and the Internet are available.

Clinical examinations beginning with sampling, examination procedures, results analysis were performed by master individually with the assistance of his academic advisor. The scientific paper will be defended at the meeting of board of studies of the department upon the completion of the master’s degree program.

Thus, we should pay special attention to the following things in the course of performance of the master’s degree curriculum and program in dental surgery for the training of a foreign master:

- individual approach with due consideration of his basic training and language barrier;

- to organize his practical work so that he will be able to think independently more, make decisions, practice his confidence in practical skills;

- to pay special attention to rendering emergency medical aid in case of emergencies as well as to oncologic alarm;

- to convince him to be engaged in scientific research, improvement of his knowledge and skills in the course of his future practical activity.

Literature

1. A. A. TIMOFEEV. Student Self-Study / А. А. TIMOFEEV, S. V. VITKOVSKAIA, S. V. MAKSIMCHA // Modern Dentistry. – 2009. – No. 1. – p. 143-145.

2. O. A. GLAZUNOV. Principles of the Bologna Process in the Integrated Teaching of Dental Subjects at the Department of Dentistry of the Postgraduate Education Division of Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy / О. А. GLAZUNOV // ‘Achievements and Prospects of Post Graduate Education’ Book devoted to a 35-year anniversary of Postgraduate Education Division of Dnipropetrovsk State Medical Academy. – 2008. – p. 24.

3. O. V. GROMOV. Information Technologies in Educational Process: Problems and Prospects for Development (Invitation to Discussion) / O. V. GROMOV, R. A. KOTELEVSKII // Modern Dentistry. - 2010. – No. 5.- p. 108-110.