Enhancing Resilience in Dental Undergraduate Training

The Initative Team

Initiative Lead
Trinity College Dublin

Primary Contact
Sviatlana Anishchuk
sviatlana.anishchuk@dental.tcd.ie

Initiative Budget

€38000

Initiative Type

Overview

Resilience is complex and multifaceted, involving numerous domains. It is an important competence for dental health professionals, as their professions are highly demanding and can lead to exhaustion and burnout. Burnout can limit effectiveness by reducing caring interactions and increasing medical errors. These significant challenges cause concerns over the mental and general health issues experienced by professionals.

The rationale for this initiative is to enhance emotional resilience in the educational curriculum to prepare all dental cohorts – Dental Science, Dental Hygiene, Dental Technology, Dental Nursing and Orthodontic Therapy students for the transition to the workplace.

The initiative addresses the educational objectives set out by the National Oral Health Policy (NOHP) Smile agus Sláinte to reform dental education training and Goals 2 and 3 of the Trinity Strategic plan (2020-2025) ‘We will support a transformative student experience’ and ‘Practice next generation teaching and learning’.

The core module will be developed as an online module through digital learning and will be aligned with the clinical practice modules across all dental undergraduate curricula.

The module will consist of five ECTS comprising of six stand-alone units. Each unit will be supported by online discussion and experiential learning through case studies, reflective writing, rubric peer assessment, quizzes and self-evaluation. The module will utilise an online discussion forum where students can further reflect on the module content, recommended readings and engage with peers. It will embrace reflective and resilience practices to ensure that final year students are ready for the transition from student to dental professionals.

Project co-leads:

Sviatlana Anishchuk sviatlana.anishchuk@dental.tcd.ie

Yvonne Howell  yvonne.howell@dental.tcd.ie