Self-perceived public health competency among recent dental graduates

The aim of this study was to assess the level of self-perceived competency in dental public health in recent graduates from the Faculty of Stomatology of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia. One hundred and nineteen graduates (28.6 percent males and 71.4 percent females) were asked to rate their self-perception of proficiency on each of the twenty-one dental public health functions identified in a dental practice competency matrix. Students assessed their competence in these dental public health functions using a three-point ordinal scale with 0 indicating "not at all competent," 1 indicating "competent," and 2 indicating "very competent." Males scored themselves higher than females for items concerning "design, develop, and evaluate community restorative interventions," "apply basic maintenance to dental equipment and instruments," and "participate in an epidemiological surveillance system." However, there were no significant differences for any item according to age. A confirmatory factorial analysis provided two factors with Eigenvalues greater than one (13.09 and 1.53, respectively), which explained 62.3 percent and 7.3 percent of the variance in the graduates' responses respectively. However, the fact that all twenty-one dental public health functions loaded higher than 0.55 on the first factor led to the conclusion that the dental public health competency is perceived by students to be a one-dimensional construct. Graduates perceived themselves as very competent for solving dental health needs at the community level. This study also provided further evidence in support of the rationale for the competency-based dental curriculum of the Faculty of Stomatology of the Universidad Peruana Cayetano Heredia.