Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic to Lithuanians Students Opinions and Experiences of OSCE

Abstract

Introduction Practice-based learning has always been a key element of dental education, and the change in the concept of the learning process during the COVID-19 pandemic has reduced practical learning hours, which may have led to student preparation for the Objective Structured Clinical Examinations (OSCE) [1]. The Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) is a practical exam that provides a standardized assessment of clinical competence [2]. Aim To evaluate the impact of the pandemic on the opinion of 5th year students of the Dentistry program, Lithuanian students of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences about the examination of the Dentistry clinical practice module based on the OSCE methodology. Methods We carried out a cross-sectional survey of Lithuanian students’ opinion and experience towards OSCE examination among dental graduating students in the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences. We used a self-administered 15-item questionnaire. 15 questions were divided into practical questions (8) and psychological questions (7). Each question was scored on a Likert scale (answer options: from completely disagree (score 1) to completely agree (score 5)). In May 2019 and May 2022 students were asked to complete an anonymous self-administered written questionnaire after completing assignments of OSCE examination. 86 students in year 2019 (response rate 100%) and 85 students in year 2022 (response rate 81.4%) participated. Statistical analysis was performed with the SPSS (1.0.0.1406). The Mann-Whitney test was used to calculate and compare the results. The difference in data between two groups are Statistically significant when (p<a, a=0.05). Results A total of 171 Lithuanians students participated in the study, 156 of them answered all questions (response rate 90.64%). Before the Covid-19 pandemic, the average rating for all questions was 3.51 (min. -1.8; max. – 5, median - 3,53). After the Covid-19 pandemic, the average rating of all questions was 3.43 (min. - 1,26; max. – 4,73, median - 3,46). After the Covid-19 pandemic, the overall mean for all questions is slightly lower than before the Covid-19 pandemic, but there is no statistically significant difference (p= 0.350). Conclusions Even though during the Covid-19 pandemic, the number of learning practices was reduced, this did not affect the opinion and experiences of the students of the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences who graduated from dentistry regarding the OSCE exam.