A survey of the participants' learning outcomes after finishing the dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists in Taiwan

Feng-Chou Cheng; Mu-Hsiung Chen; Yu-Wen Wang; Chun-Hung Chen; Kun-Lung Pin; Chien-Yi Ting; Chun-Pin Chiang

doi:10.1016/j.jds.2024.07.036

A survey of the participants' learning outcomes after finishing the dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists in Taiwan

J Dent Sci. 2024 Oct;19(4):1951-1960. doi: 10.1016/j.jds.2024.07.036. Epub 2024 Aug 8.

Authors

Feng-Chou Cheng^{1

2

3}, Mu-Hsiung Chen⁴, Yu-Wen Wang⁵, Chun-Hung Chen⁶, Kun-Lung Pin⁶, Chien-Yi Ting^{7

8}, Chun-Pin Chiang^{4

9

10}

Affiliations

¹ Chia-Te Dental Clinic, New Taipei City, Taiwan.
² School of Life Science, College of Science, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
³ Science Education Center, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁴ Department of Dentistry, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁵ Department of Medical Imaging, National Taiwan University Hospital, College of Medicine, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
⁶ Department of Radiology, Cheng Ching Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁷ Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁸ Department of Medical Imaging, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
⁹ Graduate Institute of Oral Biology, School of Dentistry, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan.
¹⁰ Department of Dentistry, Hualien Tzu Chi Hospital, Buddhist Tzu Chi Medical Foundation, Hualien, Taiwan.

Abstract

Background/purpose: In Taiwan, there are very few dental radiology curricula in medical radiation education system. This study assessed the participants' learning outcomes after finishing the dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists in Taiwan.

Materials and methods: This study used the questionnaire survey to evaluate the participants' learning outcomes after finishing the dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists in Taiwan.

Results: In this study, 85 participants filled out the questionnaires completely after finishing the dental radiology course. The majority of participants agreed that dental radiology courses were rare in the medical radiation school curricula and the continuing education courses of medical radiation technologists. Moreover, most of participants found this course to be helpful in raising their basic knowledge about the dental radiology, their attitude towards the dental radiology, and their interest in further learning of the dental radiology. They were satisfied with the courses. The degree of agreement for each question was high with all the mean scores for each question being between 3.87 and 4.61. The numbers (rates) of respondents who answered as agree were between 58 (68.24%) and 84 (98.82%).

Conclusion: The dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists is found to increase the participants' basic knowledge about the dental radiology, and their awareness and understanding of the radiation protection in dental radiography. Thus, this model can be further used for the dental radiology course for the continuing education of medical radiation technologists in Taiwan.

Keywords: Dental radiography; Dental radiology; Medical radiation technologist; Medical radiation technologist continuing education; Radiation protection.