The assessment of the value of learning communication skills in dental hygiene students

BACKGROUND: Communication skills are fundamental for medical and dental professionals. To the best of our knowledge, no study has explored dental hygiene students’ attitudes within a communication skills learning and teaching context. The aim of the present study was to assess how dental hygiene students value the learning of communication skills. METHODS: A comprehensive survey about was developed and electronically distributed to the dental hygiene students of the first, second, and third year from the dental hygiene bachelor’s degree. The dental hygiene students were administered a questionnaire that included a first section (developed to collect students’ demographic data, such as age, gender, year of bachelor’s degree), the Student Attitudes Toward Communication Skills Survey, and the Communication Skills Attitude Scale. RESULTS: Dental hygiene students thought that the “Value to Profession” component of learning communication skills was as valuable as the “Value to Self” component. A statistically significant difference between modes of communication was observed: the f-ratio value was 10.46007 (P<0.0005). The students thought that learning verbal communication skills was more important and valuable than learning written or nonverbal skills. Half of the students with high total value found learning communication skills to have high intrinsic value, attainment value, utility value and was a good use of their time. CONCLUSIONS: Dental hygiene students, as well as other healthcare programs students, may find time management to be a concern and source of stress, thus being a limitation for the improvement of communication skills.