Educational effects using a robot patient simulation system for development of clinical attitude

• Published in: European journal of dental education Vol. 22; no. 3; pp. e327 - e336
• Main Authors: Abe, S., Noguchi, N., Matsuka, Y., Shinohara, C., Kimura, T., Oka, K., Okura, K., Rodis, O. M. M., Kawano, F.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01-08-2018
• Subjects: Attitude of Health Personnel; Attitudes; clinical attitude; Clinical Competence; Clinical trials; consideration; Crowns; Data processing; Dental Care; Dental crowns; Dental schools; Dentist-Patient Relations; Dentistry; Humans; Japan; Male; Manikins; Pain; Patient Safety; Patients; Performance evaluation; robot patient simulation system; Robotics; Self Report; Simulation; Simulation Training; Students; Students, Dental; Surveys and Questionnaires; Teeth; traditional mannequin; treatment skill; Young Adult; Japan; consideration; traditional mannequin; clinical attitude; treatment skill; robot patient simulation system
• ISSN: 1396-5883; 1600-0579
• DOI: 10.1111/eje.12298

Introduction
The aim of this study was to assess the effectiveness of improving the attitude of dental students towards the use of a full‐body patient simulation system (SIMROID) compared to the traditional mannequin (CLINSIM) for dental clinical education.
Materials and methods
The participants were 10 male undergraduate dental students who had finished clinical training in the university hospital 1 year before this study started. They performed a crown preparation on an upper pre‐molar tooth using SIMROID and CLINSIM as the practical clinical trials. The elapsed time for preparation was recorded. The taper of the abutment teeth was measured using a 3‐dimensional shape‐measuring device after this trial. In addition, a self‐reported questionnaire was collected that included physical pain, treatment safety and maintaining a clean area for each simulator. Qualitative data analysis of a free format report about SIMROID was performed using text mining analysis. This trial was performed twice at 1‐month intervals.
Results
The students considered physical pain, treatment safety and a clean area for SIMROID significantly better than that for CLINSIM (P < .01). The elapsed time of preparation in the second practical clinical trial was significantly lower than in the first for SIMROID and CLINSIM (P < .01). However, there were no significant differences between the abutment tapers for both systems. For the text mining analysis, most of the students wrote that SIMROID was similar to real patients.
Conclusion
The use of SIMROID was proven to be effective in improving the attitude of students towards patients, thereby giving importance to considerations for actual patients during dental treatment.