Return of on-site activities in Brazilian Dentistry courses during the COVID-19 pandemic: comparison between public and private institutions

• Autor(a) principal: Fornazari, Renata Cristina Soares
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Freitas , André Gabriel, Silva Junior, Manoelito Ferreira, Carcereri, Daniela Lemos, Warmling, Cristine Maria, Fontanella, Vania Regina Camargo, Moysés, Samuel Jorge, Baldani, Márcia Helena
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por; eng
• Título da fonte: Revista da ABENO (Online)
• Texto Completo: https://revabeno.emnuvens.com.br/revabeno/article/view/2067
• topic: COVID-19; Odontologia; Educação em Odontologia; COVID-19; Dentistr; Education Dental; COVID-19; Odontología; Educación en Odontología

This is a quantitative-qualitative study analyzing the return of on-site activities in Brazilian dentistry undergraduate courses during the COVID-19 pandemic and the difficulties faced, comparing public and private institutions. An online form with open and multiple-choice questions was sent via e-mail to the representatives of dentistry courses from March to June 2021. The courses included were those registered on the e-MEC webpage that had started up to 2017. The quantitative analysis employed the chi-square, the Fisher exact, and the T student tests (p<0.05); the open question was subjected to thematic content analysis. Out of the 329 eligible courses, 83 forms were answered and returned (21 public and 62 private). Public institution courses showed lower frequency of return to on-site activities up to the data collection (p=0.038), and presented higher proportion of suspension of clinical and laboratory activities (p≤0.001), but no difference regarding remote theoretical lessons (p>0.05). Private courses showed higher availability of resources supporting the return to on-site activities, namely, structure, workers, and professors (p<0.001).  Although biosafety norms presented a common challenge, the main difficulties reported in private institutions related to the return to on-site activities were the modulation and schedule of the classes and lesson environments, controlling the flow of people, and the implementation of protocols. Public institutions highlighted difficulties related to adjustment of the structure and material acquisition. The results showed that most dentistry courses had returned to on-site lessons in the early 2021, but private institutions reported higher proportion of return to on-site laboratory and clinical activities.