(TC40) The Effect of an Educational Intervention on Perceptions of Infection Control Clinical Practices in a Dental School Environment

Abstract:

Objective: The goal of our series of studies was to evaluate the effectiveness of a centralized, impactful training strategy that used multimedia in improving subject compliance with and understanding of the importance of infection control guidelines and practices. Part one of this series of studies identified that the training strategy was effective in improving infection control compliance, with 41% of students showing an improvement in infection control clinical practices. The objective of part two of this series of studies was to determine if the training strategy would have a similar effect on perceptions of infection control clinical practices.

Methods: The training strategy was created to show clinical scenarios and to outline all information relevant to using proper infection control and safety procedures. A survey tool was created to highlight each subject’s perception of their own clinical infection control compliance as well as their perceived importance of the set guidelines.

Results: Pre- and post-intervention survey data were collected for 59 students. Scores were summed to form a total score that was assessed with the non-parametric Wilcoxon-test for paired samples. This study revealed overall improvements in the perceptions of the importance of infection control after the educational intervention.

Conclusions: We consider the improvement in post-training clinical infection control perceptions to be clinically important and indicate that the didactic intervention is effective for infection control training in the dental school environment.