Summer Clinic 2011 – Summary:

The objective of the summer clinic session (DENT. 4200) was to have incoming senior dental students obtain clinical experience in a system closely mirrors general dental practice.  The course coordinators were Drs. Nowakowski (GP Clinic Program Coordinator) and Kim (Clinic Director). The students were supervised by full and part-time faculty who typically instruct in the fourth year GP clinic during regular school sessions.  Unlike regular GP clinic, students were not graded nor did they receive credit for their clinical experiences toward the senior year.

This year, Summer Clinic ran from May 16th to June 24th, with general dentistry clinic being held Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 9:00-12:00 and 1:00-4:00.  Pedo/Ortho clinics were held on Friday mornings from 9:00-12:00.  Participation in these clinics was offered to our incoming fourth year class on a volunteer basis. The role of the clinic was to look after the Faculty's patients of record as well as for urgent care and new patients.

The Summer Clinic session was divided into two 3-week sessions and students could volunteer for either or both sessions.  As a volunteer program, no compensation was paid to any student other than reimbursement for parking expenses.  The facilities in the main clinic and central sterilization, along with limited dental assistant and receptionist support were made available to the students for the sessions.
 
Fourteen dental student volunteers participated in the first session while seven did for the second, including one student who volunteered for both sessions.  One other student was also present for both sessions as part of an agreement with the Faculty.  Most, but not all the volunteer students were able to commit for the full three weeks of each session – 16 students committed for three weeks, five students for two weeks and one student for one week.

Students were assigned patients by clinic reception, who also scheduled all patient appointments.  As well, and as a pilot project, urgent care patients were seen in main clinic.

Student feedback as to their experiences following the completion of the session was in general very positive.  The following summarizes the observed trends and student feelings regarding the summer clinic: What students liked:

• The general and overall positive experience – faster paced, shorter hours and workweek, patients were booked for them, seeing multiple patients, fewer students present in clinic as it was volunteer, not needing to attend classes.
• Freedom from being graded – fewer instructor checks, enjoyed the instructors who were more approachable and gave constructive criticism rather than to 'give you a hard time'.
• The general practice-type environment – no lab work to complete, seeing multiple patients in a session, being able to see emergencies and to do extractions at initial visit, being able to do procedures they had not done in third year, ability to gain experience and confidence.

What students disliked:

• Uneven distribution of patients – as a result, procedures undertaken were unevenly distributed so some students had more 'experiences' than others, sometimes the students were overbooked and overwhelmed in terms of preparing their operatories, and having an insufficient inventory of sterile instruments.
• The limited availability of chairside assistants.
• In attempting new and never before done procedures, longer wait times for instructors occurred as the instructors were spending more time with students.
• One student commented on the lack of financial compensation (although another liked being compensated for parking).

Our dental assistants provided input stating they enjoyed working in summer clinic even though they were not fully staffed and offered the following comments:

• 'Emergency' clinic being piloted in the main clinic worked very well, however in the second session there were not enough students present to handle the volume of urgent care patients.
• Having minor extractions done in main clinic worked well, but we should have a better inventory of surgical instruments.

Dr. Kim also commented that oral surgery done in summer clinic was successful -  extractions were done immediately, rather than having to be rescheduled.  It would be helpful if we had better supervision coverage from the Oral Surgery Department which would be solved if we had an Oral Surgery Specialty clinic running over the summer.

Moving forward, the comments and observations that have been made will be given due consideration, in the view to make future summer clinics provide for a positive learning experience for our students and also provide a valuable service to our patients.

Many thanks to our Summer Clinic Coordinators,  Dr. Tony Nowakowski and Dr. Aaron Kim who did an outstanding job in organizing a very successful summer clinic.  Kudos also to our clinic management team of Greta Loewen, JoAnne Jackson and Nicole Lacasse-Brass and their entire staff for their outstanding contributions in seeing that the Summer Session was a highly successful one.

Special thanks and acknowledgement must also be given to Dentsply Canada who made a significant cash donation in support of our Summer Clinic session.

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