Awareness and competency assessment of dental post graduates in managing medical emergencies

Medical emergencies are common during dental care and its management is crucial and can be life-saving. It is essential to train the students effectively in managing any kind of medical emergencies and the training to be considered an essential component of dental student curriculum. There is paucity of studies related to assessment of medical emergencies knowledge and competence levels among dental postgraduates in our environment. Thus, the present study was planned to assess the level of knowledge and competency of dental post graduate students in management of medical emergencies. Thirty four dental post graduate students participated in the study and were requested to complete a questionnaire. The questionnaire assessed the knowledge of frequency and type of medical emergencies encountered, type of training for medical emergencies, knowledge of essential emergency drugs and confidence in performing emergency management procedures. The data was collected and tabulated. The scoring was analysed using SPSS 16.0 software. Results showed that syncope was the most common encountered emergency. Knowledge about emergency drugs was inadequate and confidence in performing life-saving procedures was very low. Only 50% participants have received training but most of them (97.1%) still feel that they are inefficient in managing a medical emergency and feel the need for undergoing further emergency management training. Overall findings suggest that knowledge and competence in medical emergency management among dental postgraduates was insufficient and its proper practical training should be an essential part of dental curriculum. This will help the students cope with the unforeseen incidents which can arise in a dental setup and can save life of patients in case of serious situations.