Evaluating the efficacy of the new electronic dental assistant training program
The necessity of the training management system for dental assistant
With the continuous improvement of medical technology and oral specialist care, the demand for oral medicine, nursing, and health care is also increasing. Therefore, cultivating high-quality dental assistant will become the primary goal of dental assistant training. To ensure the high-quality completion of diagnosis and treatment, proficiency in oral professional knowledge is a prerequisite for dental assistants. Currently, the training of dental assistant primarily relies on in-service training and continuing education provided by stomatology medical institutions18.
Oral nursing has a distinctive specialty, but the existing in-service training, which mostly relies on knowledge imparting, experience sharing and technical supporting, lacks corresponding standards and norms19. Plenty of trainees have caused the following problems: (1) The ratio of supervisors to trainees is seriously out of balance. (2) Some homogeneous work needs to be repeated many times. (3) The workload of statistical data for training supervisors is too large during the procedure. With the progression of information technology, medical education has transcended traditional boundaries by incorporating sophisticated information management systems, thereby giving rise to a myriad of innovative teaching paradigms and methodologies. These advancements underscore the importance of personalized learning trajectories and the efficient assessment of competencies and expertise, all of which collectively serve to augment the efficacy of educational and training endeavors, additionally, they guarantee the continuous refreshment of instructional materials, ensuring that participants are afforded access to the most contemporary and relevant training content20,21. Thus, informatization management has incomparable advantages in standardizing processes, understanding the current situation, mastering the process, and evaluating the effect22.
Nowadays, the standardized training management informatization of residents has been gradually carried out, and it has become an important means of training management and information exchange23. At the same time, the training and assessment of nursing staff vealso begun to be informative and intelligentize24.
Enriching the training system for the dental assistant
Scientific and effective training is not only to re-educate nursing staff but also to play a role in knowledge management25. The training management system is built on the framework of the dental assistant training system. For helping the dental assistants further deepen the impression and fully grasp the theoretical knowledge, this system incorporates rich dental assistant theoretical knowledge, operating techniques, first aid skills, communication skills, nursing research and other courses in professional nursing education, supplemented by multimedia materials such as videos and animations26. This addresses the deficiencies of conventional dental assistant education, transforming abstract theories into visually tangible concepts and markedly enhancing the learner’s engagement and the efficacy of the educational experience27,28. Simultaneously, this system provides efficient and consistent training for dental assistants, addressing the challenges and deficiencies encountered in practical training owing to the limited scale of many dental programs or the absence of adequate mentorship29.
After completing the training course, the system will promptly urge the dental assistants to conduct operational training and complete the course assessment. At the same time, the information system can record the learning process of dental assistants, which is helpful for cultivating dental assistants’ self-evaluation and reaction abilities.
Significantly improving the training quality and efficiency
After implementing the training management system, dental assistants can select targeted training courses according to the established plan and access relevant content at any time. Different departments and specialists can choose tailored courses for dental assistants at various proficiency levels. Besides nursing – specific courses, dental assistants can independently acquire theoretical knowledge. The training course coverage rate increased from 80.29 to 100%. Post – training, the response time of dental assistants in the four – handed technique decreased, leading to better collaboration, shorter waiting times during oral treatments, and reduced overall operation durations. Physicians are highly satisfied with the comprehensive capabilities of dental assistants, indicating good training outcomes. This also shows an improvement in the oral professional nursing standards of dental assistants. Most dental assistants’ user satisfaction ratings are above 36 points, with high scores for system usability, course content quality, and anticipated future utility. These results prove that the system meets the current training needs of specialized oral dental assistants. The rising pass rate of the N2 – level promotion examination further demonstrates the system’s effectiveness.
Similar to some previous reports, this study also shows that electronic training management systems enhance training efficiency30. For example, previous research found that such systems improved the learning experience and skills of healthcare professionals31. In our study, the significant increase in course coverage rate and the improvement in dental assistants’ performance metrics are in line with the general trend reported before. However, our study further reveals the specific satisfaction aspects from the users’ (dental assistants’) perspective, which some prior research may not have detailed32. Also, the direct link between the system and the N2 – level promotion examination pass rate is a unique finding compared to previous reports, providing more evidence of the system’s long – term impact on professional development33. It is important to note that while there are consistencies with previous research, our study adds new dimensions to understanding the effectiveness of training management systems for oral dental assistants. This further validates the potential of electronic systems in improving the training and performance of dental professionals in the oral care field.
Optimizing the training and management path
The realm of training management involves a great deal of textual materials and complex data calculations, which are often cumbersome and prone to problems like information discrepancies and omissions. In this study, there’s a remarkable reduction from (94.80 ± 28.95) minutes to (8.30 ± 3.30) minutes. This dramatic decrease in time far outperforms what was likely presented in previous research, clearly indicating a substantial boost in efficiency. Such an improvement encourages supervisors to further optimize the system. Here, the satisfaction ratings of the 10 training supervisors exceed 36 points, aligning with the findings of previous studies. This consistency further validates the view that the application of electronic training systems can notably enhance the efficiency of training administration and improve overall organizational processes34,35.
As in previous research, the shift from paper – based to electronic data was emphasized as a trend36. In our case, with the implementation of the training management system, the transition of prior paper – based data to electronic formats is seamless, facilitating easy editing and archiving. The automatic generation and archiving of data related to training completion status and assessment outcomes, eliminating redundant calculations, are also in line with the concept presented in previous studies37. This advancement not only enables the automatic collection and analysis of data but also optimizes the management pathway, a point that prior research has also touched upon but our study shows more remarkable results in practical implementation38.
Limitation
Currently, the system lacks the capability for automated, real-time saving. Consequently, any irregularities in network stability or improper user actions may lead to data loss if the dental assistant fails to save promptly. Further investigations are necessary. A training supervisor proposed that the training system should be integrated with other hospital systems to facilitate data sharing. Upon this foundation, the training management system can augment its interaction with nursing quality management, research management, and other related systems. Moving forward, our efforts will be directed toward addressing these two issues and continuously refining the training system. Simultaneously, the training and assessment content of this system is tailored based on the standards of the Affiliated Stomatological Hospital of Sun Yat-sen University, which may not be universally applicable to other medical institutions. However, given the considerable consistency in the theoretical knowledge and professional skills training for dental assistants across various hospitals, this factor may, to some extent, mitigate the barriers for other hospitals in adopting this system. Nevertheless, this hypothesis warrants further validation through subsequent research. Moreover, due to the extensive textual and video content incorporated within the system, it imposes relatively high demands on users’ network environments. Constraints in network conditions may, to a certain degree, compromise the quality of training.
It is undeniable that this study is not without its limitations. In the process of evaluating user satisfaction, variations in users’ environments and their diverse attitudes towards information technology may introduce certain biases into the satisfaction statistics gathered. To refine the findings of this research, it is imperative to conduct more extensive surveys targeting a larger user base to assess satisfaction levels comprehensively.
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