Melbourne Dental School’s curriculum review and redesign centres around building student skills and competency and providing quality patient care.
After a comprehensive review process that began in 2020, Melbourne Dental School’s (MDS) new curriculum rolled out this year, with extensive input from MDS staff and students.
It also incorporates the updated Australian Dental Council (ADC) Professional Competencies of the New Qualified Dental Practitioner that outline the knowledge, skills, behaviours and attributes expected of dental practitioners upon graduation from an ADC-accredited program.
Associate Professor Samantha Byrne (PhD 2006, GCertUniTeach 2009), Director of Students and Education at Melbourne Dental School, says the new curriculum embraces the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences Advancing Health 2030 strategy and its principles — Collaborate + Innovate + Nurture = Impact.
“The new curriculum evolved from the experiences of students and educators and we also worked with Dental Health Services Victoria to review data about the patient experience. Clinicians who work with us as clinical educators also provided feedback around advances in dentistry that we needed to address,” says Associate Professor Byrne.
Some key enhancements are the approach to formal learning around professional practice, which includes areas such as communication, leadership, critical thinking and professionalism. Previously covered in the first year and then only touched on during the rest of the program, a professional practice subject is now formally established throughout the curriculum.
We will provide more spaces for students to learn how to care for and develop themselves, and to care for their patients and the planet says Associate Professor Byrne.
For the first time, MDS students learn about sustainability in dental health and practice and the curriculum places greater emphasis on digital health.
“There is also more emphasis on case-based learning, such as in the field of special needs dentistry. So, students learn about diseases and conditions patients may present with and how this might influence how they obtain consent from a patient and communicate with them,” says Associate Professor Byrne.
MDS is working closely with the university’s Collaborative Practice Centre (CPC) to ensure the curriculum develops practitioners with both individual and team skills to contribute to the more collaborative health workforce of the future.
This collaborative workforce can be more supportive of one another and the communities they serve. It can also be more responsive to challenges like climate change and innovations like assistive technologies.
The CPC is a catalyst for collaborative healthcare practice and supports current and future practitioners to deliver person-centred care and improved health outcomes. It brings learners from across the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences together to learn about, from and with one another, focusing on developing their complementary, common and team skills. It fosters a collaborative curriculum, authentic learning, integrated health education networks, pioneering collaborative practice standards and research excellence.
Whether you are studying to be a dentist, speech pathologist or physiotherapist, you need to learn things like cultural safety, ethics, research skills and communication. The CPC seeks out and promotes the natural opportunities for students across the MDHS faculty to develop these types of knowledge and skills together says Associate Professor Byrne.
Although the new curriculum is in practice, Associate Professor Byrne says an ongoing process of review and refinement is vital. “We’re always looking at how to improve and move forward in the best interests of our students and the communities they will care for,” she says.
“We want to support graduates who understand the latest technology and who are good at the technical aspects of dentistry but who are also compassionate, ready for the oral health workforce and ready to care.”
Learn more about the Collaborative Practice Centre: mdhs.unimelb.edu.au/CPC4Health