Impact of the curriculum system on the quality of stomatology graduates: a multivariable analysis | BMC Medical Education

Overall, graduate quality has been evaluated by multidimensional evaluation indicators, especially the NBDE pass rate and employment rate. On the one hand, these findings prove that ZCMU has relatively high talent cultivation quality and is a valuable curriculum system. ZCMU stomatology graduates have sufficient ability to undertake clinical work, obtain compensation and realize their professional value. On the other hand, these findings indirectly indicate the booming development of the dental industry based on top student resources, which benefits the NBDE and employment. The postgraduate admission rate is lower. This might be because traditional curriculum provision focuses only on filling knowledge gaps and neglects students’ mind cultivation. As a result, although students have sacrificed enormous amounts of time in memorizing textbooks, most of them lack the capacity to think critically, justify decisions, and use logical reasoning to analyse problems. Students have better learning effectiveness if they can integrate information to understand content taught by seeking meaning, relating ideas, and using evidence rather than rote learning [14].

In the present study, we found that specialized and stomatology X courses were positively related to the NBDE oral score, which indicates that increasing the number of class hours dedicated to specialized and stomatology X courses can improve the oral score and the NBDE pass rate. The better exam performance may be partially explained by greater clinical exposure in the curriculum early on, where, i.e., the first 2 years at the University of Missouri-Columbia are utilized for early clinical exposure and basic science education [15]. However, this is difficult to achieve due to the contradiction between infinite medical knowledge and the limited number of school hours. The current undergraduate stomatology education in China adopts the three-stage teaching mode of basic medicine—clinical medicine——stomatology [2]. The establishment of numerous clinical medical courses has led to an obvious shortage of basic and clinical stomatology courses and insufficient professional skills training [16,17,18]. For the nonoral portion of the NBDE, general basic courses are positively correlated with the score, indicating that increasing the number of class hours in basic clinical courses improves students’ comprehensive medical quality and ability. The learning stage of clinical medicine is considered to be characterized by higher cultivation of stomatology talent in China, and emphasis is placed on medical students first and stomatology students second [19]. Therefore, how to balance stomatology courses and clinical courses is an urgent problem. It is suggested that school years be extended by referring to the training model of developed countries and that theoretical and practical courses be cross-matched throughout the whole education process [20,21,22]. Accumulating clinical experience in advance leads to a smoother transition [23,24,25] and a lighter cognitive load [26].

In the present study, medical English (OR = 2.25) and employment guidance courses (OR = 1.049) had the greatest positive impacts on the postgraduate entrance rate. This is because postgraduate entrance examination subjects are divided into ideological and political theories, specialized courses and foreign languages. Medical English courses improve students’ foreign language skills. Moreover, when selecting students, graduate tutors often require English interviews throughout the process to test the student’s English level. For medical students, mastering medical English is an advanced skill for medical treatment, scientific research and related activities in future professional research or work [27]. However, studies have noted that students who grow up in non-English-speaking countries are limited by language and expertise in reading English literature [28, 29]. It is suggested that medical English courses be offered in the early stage to help individuals learn and improve their English throughout their education and lay a solid language foundation. Employment guidance courses help students clarify industry academic requirements and strengthen their confidence in taking postgraduate entrance examinations [17]. General basic courses are positively correlated with admission to domestic colleges, which indicates that increasing class hours is conducive to improving students’ comprehensive medical literacy and admission opportunities at domestic universities. The stomatology X course was positively correlated with admission to ZCMU for postgraduate studies (OR = 1.004), possibly because stomatology X courses enhance students’ comprehensive ability and professional teachers’ appreciation of students.

In the present study, it was observed that restricted elective and stomatology X courses were negatively correlated with the employment rate. Restricted elective and stomatology X courses are extended courses that impose greater requirements on students. Therefore, as class hours increase, students are more inclined to pursue advanced education, which is negatively correlated with the employment rate. Restricted elective courses were negatively correlated with medical institution and advanced education. This might be because the main restricted course at ZCMU is Chinese medicine, which is not the vital helpful for employment of stomatology students. General education, specialized and stomatology X courses are positively correlated with advanced education, indicating that a solid professional foundation; high-quality stomatology X composite talent training courses; and necessary language, humanities and social science general education cultivate students’ lofty value pursuits and career beliefs. Professional teachers encourage students to pay attention to advanced knowledge and the latest technology in professional fields to follow or even lead the progress of disciplines.

Similarly, in the present study, there was a negative correlation between specialized courses and postgraduate admission to domestic universities. Public elective courses were positively correlated with the employment rate. The specific reasons are still unknown, and further investigations and statistics are still needed.

In addition, there was no significant difference in admission to overseas colleges across the curriculum settings, possibly due to the small number of applicants. Employment guidance courses had no statistically significant effect on the employment rate, possibly because current employment guidance courses lack discipline pertinence in design and industry-wide perspectives in stomatology, making it difficult for them to provide operable guidance and support.

In general, in this study, we discussed the logic of curriculum system establishment and performed a preliminary quantitative evaluation of talent quality. It is suggested to appropriately increase specialized and stomatology X courses, reveal the trend of extended school years.However, this study has several limitations. In the process of talent training, we focused only on curriculum establishment and ignored the impact of important training links such as probations and internships, may lead to the evaluation results distortion.