ANALYSIS OF THE SUPERVISED INTERNSHIP IN DENTISTRY UNDER THE
PERCEPTION OF STUDENTS IN PRACTICE SCENARIOS
Clinical internship. Dentistry Education. Health Unic System.
The profile of the dentist, previously considered technical, fragmented, centered on
curing diseases, focused on specializations and not on meeting population
demands, is now leading to the construction of the new National Curriculum
Guidelines (DCN) and also proposes changes in professional training for students
of dentistry course enabling them to experience what the scenario of the Unified
Health System is like, during curricular internships.
The supervised internships provide spaces for reflection by the students, allowing
improvements in their training, as long as the teaching-learning process is
consistent with the proposal. Analyze the supervised internship in the Dentistry
course of a Federal Public University, under the students' perception to understand
the teaching-learning process, the potentialities and limitations of the supervised
curricular internship. A qualitative and quantitative study with assertive questions,
with a Likert-type scale and a motivating question, applied to the 10th period
students who completed the supervised curricular internship and to the recent
graduates of the last two years at the Faculty of Dentistry. The students valued the
internship as being important for professional training. Gaps were found in
communication such as exchange of information about what they have learned,
about studying by themselves and about organization and financial resources for
support. An approximation is necessary between the student and the University, so
that they can exchange information about their experiences and difficulties during
the internship. Effective communication is one of the needs of these students to
analyze how this teaching-learning process is being carried out in the internship
and what improvement strategies these students are using to expand their
knowledge. Another point to be analyzed refers to the organization of the
internship, in particular, the didactic material, schedule, location, workload and
financial support for traveling, technical materials and food. During the study, it was
noticed that the curricular internship needs to provide students in the practice
scenarios with strategies that bring better teaching-learning conditions, putting
them in contact with the social reality and also with the training of a generalist,
humanist and critical-reflective professional. Thus it is necessary to take joint
actions between the course and the health institutions, analyzing and trying to find
solutions to minimize its weaknesses, supporting the student and the dental
professionals.