‘One minute preceptor’ a teaching-learning model for oral radiographic interpretation skill

Radiographic interpretation skill is the most essential skill for a dental undergraduate to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Dental Surgery and also to be a competent private dental practitioner. Despite the various teaching techniques, radiographic interpretation is quite a challenging task. One minute preceptor (OMP) model is widely used for active teaching in busy clinical setting, and the same was applied for teaching radiographic interpretation skill. Objectives: 1) To train the III BDS students to arrive at radiographic diagnosis of periapical diseases using OMP model, 2) To assess and compare the performances of the students after OMP training using structured checklist. Methodology: The study involved 64 third year BDS students posted in the department of Oral medicine and radiology. After obtaining an informed consent the students were randomly divided into intervention group and comparison group with 32 students in each group. A discussion on radiographic interpretation of periapical diseases was conducted at the department and was followed by a pretest on the same day for both groups. The pretest comprised of written radiographic interpretation of periapical diseases displayed on the computer screen, which were evaluated using a 10 item checklist. Intervention group underwent training through One minute preceptor (OMP) method for radiographic interpretation wherein they were guided by the preceptor using five microskills of OMP followed by post test for both the groups. Results: The pre and post test scores of comparison and intervention groups were analyzed using unpaired‘t’ test. The post test scores between the two groups were significantly different with and a p value of 0.00001, revealing the positive impact of OMP training. Conclusion: By using ‘One minute preceptor’ model, the students radiographic interpretation skill advanced from being unorganized and inconsistent to systematic and consistent with clinical diagnosis.