A holistic interprofessional student induction programme for dental education

The transition from high school to dental school in India presents significant challenges due to the rigorous academic requirements, uncharted learning environments and local settings with unfamiliar language. Additionally, dental schools have students from diverse socio-cultural backgrounds, requiring cultural adaptation that is especially striking in a country like India. For most students, this is their first time away from home, often leading to homesickness and loneliness. Differences in learning, high expectations, fear of failure and adjusting to self-study can cause anxiety. This potentially overwhelming change demands guidance and support. While many institutions offer orientation programmes, they typically focus on the curriculum and last one half-day to a week. The profound adjustment needed warrants extended support systems that take a holistic and welfare-based approach.

To address these challenges, the Dental Education Unit of our institute initiated a month-long Bachelor of Dental Surgery Student Induction Programme titled ‘Deeksharambh’ (Sanskrit: initiation or commencement). This interprofessional programme aimed to facilitate a smooth transition into dental education without overwhelming students with an excess of curricular, policy and procedural content. The programme was delivered to a cohort of 30 newly inducted first year Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS) students and comprised 18 sessions grouped under themes such as course requirements, campus facilities, personality development, wellness and empowerment, research opportunities, and team bonding. The sessions were curated to holistically encompass a range of issues that students could be faced with like fear of interaction, improving self-efficacy, preparedness to face the dental curriculum, facilities within the campus, and awareness regarding potential issues like bullying, addiction to drugs, social media and so on. The sessions were delivered by relevant stakeholders (e.g., faculty, senior students and alumni) and interprofessional experts (law enforcement officers, language experts, auxiliary staff etc.) who were purposefully selected to address the transitional needs of the students. A booklet outlining the objectives and key learning outcomes for each session was provided: https://shorturl.at/mgiuR. A detailed description of the session can be found at https://www.amrita.edu/school/dentistry/dental-education-unit/.

Challenges in transitioning to dental school are more pronounced in high school entry students, necessitating the needs for an induction or pre-matriculation programme.¹ Following the creation of such, a dedicated feedback session was conducted for quality improvement. Online polls and reflective essays were used to obtain both quantitative and qualitative feedback. The feedback received was overwhelmingly positive, with most sessions rated as highly relevant. The programme helped reduce students' anxiety and confusion, increased bonding among peers, boosted confidence, inspired a passion for dentistry, research and motivated students for their journey. Students particularly enjoyed interacting with alumni and a talent exhibition, which acted as an ice-breaker and promoted camaraderie. Students felt well-prepared and found the programme instrumental for facilitating their adjustment and adaptation to the new institution. With respect to critical remarks, some students opined that a few session topics like soft skills and communication etiquette exhibited overlap, pointing to direction for further refinement. Overall, however, the programme's holistic focus appeared to be successful, creating the opportunity, we believe, to contribute to better educational outcomes.

Venkitachalam Ramanarayanan: Conceptualization; methodology; software; formal analysis; investigation; resources; data curation; writing-original draft; visualization; project administration. Balagopal Varma: Conceptualization; methodology; formal analysis; resources; data curation; writing—review and editing; supervision; project administration. Rakesh Suresh: Methodology; resources; data curation; writing—review and editing; supervision; project administration. Nanditha Sujir: Methodology; resources; data curation; writing—review and editing.

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

The programme was conducted as a part of activities of Dental Education Unit of Amrita School of Dentistry. No ethical approval was required as it was not a research activity. Administrative approvals were obtained.