Role of internet on overall development of knowledge and attitude among undergraduate, postgraduate students, and staff members in a dental institution – A questionnaire-based study

INTRODUCTION

Internet nowadays has become an essential part of our life both for education and social purposes. In particular, it has become an integral part of education and research, and its impact on teaching and learning is widely acknowledged.[¹]

It is making substantial inroads into research, patient care education, and dissemination of health care information.[²] It has become one of the most important sources of information for students of higher education institutions worldwide by providing access to educational materials.[³]

Education and research, communication, healthcare services, online monetary transactions, trade, buying items, entertainment, and other benefits of the Internet have all been extensively investigated.[³] According to research, 73% of college students use the Internet at least once a day and spend between 1.6 and 4.5 hours a day online, preferably at night.[³]

According to the literature, the internet is fast expanding, and it has become a vital resource for patient care, evidence-based care, and the transmission of high-quality health-related information.[²] Furthermore, greater internet use allows for the transfer of patient records, online diagnosis, and distinct learning through webinars without the presence of faculty.^[4-6] The internet’s widespread use in medicine has had a considerable impact on research, training, and patient care 8. Electronic learning is a flexible approach to dentistry students’ education that allows them to work at their own pace.^[7-9]

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A self-administered pretested questionnaire was prepared with 18 questions to assess the role of the internet in the overall development of knowledge and attitude. Seven questions were close-ended, and the rest all had multiple choices to answer. The questionnaire was handed to all included participants before the start of the survey, and they were collected from them immediately after they completed it, which took about 10 to 20 minutes. Out of a total of 240 respondents, 40 staff members and 200 students (111 women and 89 males) participated in the survey. The purpose of the study was explained in detail to the respondents, and respondents were reminded not to write their names on the form. They were also reminded that they had to choose only one option for each question. The data were analyzed using Microsoft office excel 2007. Chi-squared test was applied, and the P<0.05, which showed that the data were significant.

DEPARTMENT OF ORAL MEDICINE AND RADIOLOGY PACIFIC DENTAL COLLEGE AND HOSPITAL UDAIPUR, RAJASTHAN

ROLE OF INTERNET ON OVERALL DEVELOPMENT OF KNOWLEDGE AND ATTITUDE AMONG UNDERGRADUATES, POSTGRADUATES STUDENTS AND STAFF MEMBERS IN A DENTAL INSTITUTION -A QUESTIONNAIRE BASED STUDY.

AGE (in years):………………… GENDER: MALE/FEMALE

KINDLY ANSWER THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS

(PUT MARK ON ONLY 1 APPROPRIATE OPTION AND PREFERENCE SCORE AS 1,2,3,4,5 IN Q 4,13)

Q1. WHICH MODE DO YOU USE MOST FREQUENTLY TO ACCESS INTERNET?

Q2. WHICH IS THE MOST PREFERED PLACE FOR YOU TO WORK ON INTERNET?

Q3. FOR HOW MANY HOURS A DAY DO YOU ACCESS INTERNET?

Q 4 . W H AT I S YO U R I N D I C AT I O N F O R U S I N G INTERNET? (SPECIFY PREFERENCE – 1, 2, 3, 4, 5)

Q5. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING ARE YOU AWARE OF?

Q6. DO YOU ENCOUNTER PATIENTS COMING WITH KNOWLEDGE GAINED THROUGH INTERNET ABOUT DENTAL DISEASES/TREATMENT?

IF YES, DO YOU THINK IT CREATES HINDRANCE IN DENTIST PATIENT RELATIONSHIP and MANAGEMENT OF PATIENT?

Q7. DOES INTERNET IN ANY WAY IMPROVE THE TEACHING/ LEARNING SKILLS OF A TEACHER/STUDENT?

Q8. HOW WILL YOU RATE YOUR SKILLS IN USING INTERNET?

Q9. HOW MANY YEARS EXPERIENCE DO YOU HAVE IN USING INTERNET?

Q 10. ARE YOU AWARE OF COMMUNICATION THROUGH INTERNET FOR EXCHANGE OF MEDICAL AND DENTAL INFORMATION?

IF YES, WHICH TYPE OF COMMUNICATION YOU ARE FAMILIAR WITH?

Q11.HOW DID YOU LEARN TO USE INTERNET?

Q12. WHICH WEBSITE/SEARCH ENGINES DO YOU USE MOST COMMONLY TO GAIN KNOWLEDGE?

Q13. WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING METHOD IS USED MORE COMMONLY FOR STUDY AND TEACHING PURPOSES?

Q14. DO YOU SURF OTHER SITES WHILE USING INTERNET FOR DENTISTRY?

Q15. DO YOU THINK INFORMATION AVAILABLE ON INTERNET IS RELIABLE?

Q16. DO YOU THINK GAINING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT DENTISTRY THROUGH INTERNET IS A BOON FOR ACADEMICS and CLINICAL PRACTICE?

Q17. HOW WOULD YOU RATE THE QUALITY OF KNOWLEDGE GAINED BY INTERNET AS COMPARED TO TEXTBOOK and JOURNALS?

Q18. DO YOU THINK THE ATTAINMENT OF KNOWLEDGE THROUGH INTERNET CAN BE AN ALTERNATIVE TO CLASSROOM TEACHING, E.g. (WEBINAR)?

RESULTS AND OBSERVATIONS

In the present study total, no of participants were 240 out of them, 100 were undergraduates, 100 were postgraduates, and 40 were staff members among 100 undergraduates, 40 were males, 60 were females among 100 postgraduates, 49 were males, 51 were females, and among 40 staff members 18 were males and 22 were females [Table 3 and Figure 1].

Figure 1: Ratio of male and female participants in all three groups

Table 3: Characteristics of recruited participants

DISCUSSION

Advances occurring in the field of information and communication technology have revolutionized the way people think and work. At present, the Internet is making a substantial contribution to research, patient care, education, and dissemination, of health-care information.[¹⁰] The Internet is a beautiful communication tool that has undoubtedly carved a niche in dentistry; however, the same caution and criteria should be applied to evaluating information and data from Internet sources. In this situation, the academic dental community needs to ensure that electronic dental information is authentic. They should help the students to get reliable dental information from the Internet.

Data from the current study indicate that dental students and staff members use the internet to access dental information and entertainment purposes. Most postgraduate students use the internet to discover the most up-to-date research methodologies and journals, and graduate students mainly use it for recreation purposes. The study also discovered that the majority of dental students and staff members support the fact that the internet improves teaching and learning skills.[¹¹,¹²]

Completed questionnaire was collected from the respondents and was analyzed through statistical analysis. It was found that among all the groups of respondents, 57% postgraduates mainly use their personal laptops to operate internet. More than 50% of PGs were operating internet mainly for finding latest journals and articles. This data is in support of the study conducted in Jordan by Spallek et al. where 91.1% of students use internet for academic purposes that is for mailing and discussion with colleagues.[¹¹] 40% PGs were operating internet from college due to the easy availability of net, this finding is consistent with data found in an earlier study conducted in India by Grover et al. 65.38% use internet on regular basis for an average time spent was approx. 2.13 h (standard deviation1.98). Giving us an indication that internet had become an integral part in field of education.[¹³] Around 57% of pgs were well aware of the recent journals published on internet.[¹⁴,¹⁵] Increased use of internet by patients to enquire about the treatment modalities had led to some hindrance in clinical practice and which has led to increased demand of inappropriate care and unrealistic expectations in treatment modalities 88% pgs and 92% staff members answer yes to it.[¹⁶] According to the study 61.1% of students preferred using internet from the hostel and college this data is in consistence with study conducted by Hamissi et al. 84.1%[¹⁷] preferred university, 76.3% connected to the Internet from their home and 13 percent from others’ computers 86.8% of the students used mailing system.[¹⁵] A study conducted in Karnataka by Gupta et al. revealed 94.6% XII grade students said yes that it creates hindrance in clinical practice.[¹²] 80% of PGS agreed that information available on internet is reliable to an extent, according to Grover et al. 73.2% PG agree that the information available is reliable.[¹³]

When skills in using internet was rated, the postgraduates were found more competent than the staff and undergraduates. Majority of postgraduates were aware of communication through internet and mainly aware of telemedicine. Google was found to be the most common website used. Majority of the staff members deny that the internet cannot replace the classroom teaching, but dental students were with the fact that yes webinars can replace the classroom teaching.

CONCLUSION

Hence, we can conclude that the Internet as medium of communication is useful in medicine and has become an important means of delivering dental care. The use of the Internet is an evolving phenomenon at this stage. Its use in the dental colleges and hospitals under study is still in a state of infancy or early maturation. We can very well visualize a situation when all users will have achieved near perfection in the use of and full dependency on the Internet for their information needs. Hence, still there is a vast scope of future research in different types of users’ behavior and comparison of users’ behavior toward the Internet.[²]