Педагогические науки/2. Проблемы подготовки специалистов

К.пед.н. Раздорская О.В.

Курский государственный медицинский университет, Россия

THE IMPORTANCE OF COMMUNICATIVE AND REFLEXIVE SKILLS FOR THE FUTURE DENTISTS AND THEIR PROFESSIONAL IMAGE

Dental students study many humanitarian, clinical and special subjects. Their knowledge contributes to formation of a competent specialist in dentistry. A student often asks himself the questions: ‘Am I able to become a highly qualified specialist?’, ‘Will my patients consider me to be a skilled specialist?’ These questions concern the problem of a dentist’s image. Moreover, the dental students think of starting a private dental practice in future, so its image should be viewed. The problem under consideration has many aspects of psychological and communicative character.

How a dentist looks, dresses, acts and speaks all contribute to his/ her image. Psychologists refer to it as pattern recognition – the dentists ‘template match’. When new patients enter a dental practice they template match from the moment of arrival. A dentist should ask himself a question: ‘Does my practice image reflect the typical template or there is something about it that makes you different?’

The Greek philosopher Epictetus was acutely aware of the psychology of perception. He taught his pupils ‘first to know who you are, then adorn yourself accordingly’. So before a dentist looks at his practice he should look at himself.

Self-image is where it starts. The model of a relationship between self-image and self-esteem is proposed. Self-image consists of the following aspects:

· Self as I believe I am;

· Self as I would like to be;

· Self as I believe others see me.

There is a relationship between self-image and self-esteem. The more positive is one’s self-image, the higher is one’s self-esteem. Thus, if we see ourselves as winners, so will others and, as a result we may well turn out to be winners; if we see ourselves as losers, then losers is what we may become. Self-monitoring is closely connected with introspective skills of a specialist.

Choice of clothing can also affect the patient’s perception. Clothing influences first impressions. The white coat has become a symbol of the health professional, but these conventions are not as rigid as they once were. Style and cleanliness in clothing may be more important and indicate adherence to traditional values of hygiene and sterility. A dentist himself is responsible for his image. Responsibility is an essential discipline in all aspects of the business in dentistry, including clinical dentistry.

Self-monitoring is the term that has been coined by psychologists to express the extent to which a person notices the self-presentation of others and uses that information to guide their own self-presentation. People who score highly on their ability to self-monitor are better able to change their behavior to suit the situation or audience – and are known to perform better.

We must remember that patients also display stereotype tendencies towards dentists. If the perceptions are negative (as they often are), the real challenge is to break the stereotype mould – but that is not easily done. A typical remark made by a patient and one that many dentists have heard on numerous occasions is: ‘I hope I do not have to see you again too soon. I do not know why I say that. You have never hurt me, but you know what I mean.’ The patient is recalling information that is consistent with their pre-existing stereotype rather than information that is not consistent – as evidenced by the comment ‘I do not know why I say that. You have never hurt me.’ It can take time to change the image of the stereotype that is ‘the dentist’ and one way to go about it is to borrow some ideas from the image-makers and the brand creators.

In K.R. Kulich’s study of interpersonal skills in the dentist - patient relationship, a group of patients rated the quality of interpersonal skills among their ideal characteristics of a dentist. The attributes were, in order:

· contact with patients

· communication skills

· empathy

· manual skills

· theoretical knowledge [2].

In N.L. Corah and colleagues’ report on ‘behavior that reduces patient anxiety and increases satisfaction’, patients frequently recommend dentists who:

· Give initial explanations of what is going to happen during a dental procedure;

· Give an in-process explanation to let the patient know what is happening as it is going on;

· Instruct the patient to be calm;

· Warn the patient about pain when it is likely to occur;

· Verbally support the patient;

· Try to give the patient ways of looking at the procedure in a less-threatening fashion;

· Provide distraction of attention and try to communicate in ways that builds trust [1].

Self-image is connected also with communication performance. In our opinion, a specialist in dentistry should have not only professional, but also communicative and reflexive skills. A teacher should create the conditions for the dental students’ self-education, self-improvement and development of reflexive culture’s skills. These opportunities are connected with the students’ personal introspection and with the analysis of their own progress and failures. A teacher is an intermediate between reflexive culture and a student’s personality. Mastering the reflexive skills promotes the abilities of professional thinking, finding the drawbacks of professional activity and the ways of their elimination.

Communicative skills of the dental students of Kursk State Medical University are developed during the practical studies in English. The students make up dialogues imitating the parts of a dentist and patients suffering from caries, pulpitis, periodontitis, etc. The future dentists learn how to ask their patients the proper questions in order to make a correct diagnosis; at the same time they try to show their understanding attitude to the patients. The students come to the conclusion that effective communication of a dentist can contribute in decreasing a patient’s anxiety. It is likely that the patient knows far less about the procedures the dentists perform than the dentists do. Words and phrases that have obvious meaning to the dentists can mean different things to different patients. Making up dialogues the students try to choose the words comprehensible to the patients, as not all the professional terms referring to dentistry may be clear to the patients.

The students play the parts of the patients, so they have an opportunity to evaluate themselves as the future specialists watching themselves with the patients’ eyes. It is very important for the future dentists and is concerned with the skills of personal evaluation.

The dental students report that the communicative skills obtained by them at the practical studies in English are very useful and the certain speech pattern can be used also in Russian during their future working activity.

Moreover, non-verbal communication is the valve that regulates the flow of verbal communication. It is more powerful and more effective communication tool than words alone. The words can be carefully chosen in face-to-face communication, but if paralinguistic cues differ, the message will be insincere.

A site in the Internet may be viewed as a means of non-verbal communication. If a dental practice has its site in the Internet, its information should be credible. The content of the site should be patient-friendly. The design and content must reflect the level of a patient understanding about dentistry. Unlike the other channels of communication, electronic communications lack emotion. That’s why the site’s design must be in empathy with the patient experience. The dental students get a task to write the contents of a dental practice’s site in English. The aim of this task is to develop the skills of self-presentation.

It is clear that professional activity of a dentist can be successful if his approach to working out his image is professional. Summing it up, we should state that the methods above mentioned help the students develop not only language skills, but also communicative and reflexive skills that can be used by them in the process of their future professional activity.

References

1. Corah, N.L., O’Shea R.M., Bissel G.D., Thines T.J. Mendola P. The dentist - patient relationship: perceived dentist behaviors that reduce patient anxiety anв increase satisfaction. J Am Dent Assoc 1988; 116: 73 – 76.

2. Kulich K.R. Interpersonal skills in the dentist – patient relationship. The art of dentistry. Doctoral dissertation (psychol.) Goteborg University, Sweden, 2000.