After reports of a "toxic study environment" at the School of Dentistry: More than one in four students have experienced a harsh tone in the clinic

Last year, several students at the School of Dentistry reported a "very stressful" and "toxic" study environment at the school's joint clinic, where students are trained by clinical teachers and have to perform dental treatments on patients.

In an interview with Aarhus Stiftstidende, 25 dental students described experiences of harassment, bullying, and condescending remarks. Students shared similar experiences with Omnibus, describing how teachers shouted at them in the clinic in front of fellow students and patients – something they found both humiliating and overstepping personal boundaries.

The criticism prompted the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health to initiate an external investigation of the clinical study and working environment. The investigation has now been concluded.

29 % of students have experienced a harsh tone in the clinic, while 35 % have witnessed a harsh tone in the clinic, according to a survey conducted by the Danish emergency services and healthcare company Falck. 10 per cent of the students have experienced discrimination and bullying in the past year. 16.7 % say they do not generally feel safe in their relationship with their instructors in the clinical subjects, while 78.5 % say they do. The remaining respondents answered “not applicable.”

The issues highlighted in the report primarily concern the relationship between clinical teachers and dental students, and to some extent between clinical instructors and dental surgery assistants. There is no data “that identified significant issues among students in other programmes” (other than odontology, ed.) at the department.

A harsh tone

The report shows examples of the harsh tone. These are comments such as “Are you stupid?”, “You shouldn’t be representing this place,” “I hope I don’t get you as a student on my team,” and “How stupid can you be if you don’t understand that?”

One respondent in the survey also described how a patient comforted a student after a staff member behaved inappropriately, and there is an example of a patient warning students about certain staff members. At the same time, there are also examples of students who are harsh in their tone when they write emails to staff members, and students who respond harshly to employees.

Among the staff members at the clinic, 8.3 per cent have experienced a harsh or disrespectful tone within the last year, while 9.2 per cent have witnessed it. The report states that clinic surgery assistants are predominantly the ones experiencing this behaviour, both from dentists directed at them as a professional group and towards dental students.

Setting up working groups

The report concludes that the department – and especially the day-to-day life in the clinical subjects – is described by both staff and students as an educational and dynamic place where expectations are high and the workload is heavy. There’s generally a high level of well-being and satisfaction among students and staff, but Falck also notes a significant number of incidents between dental students and employed dentists where there’s room and a need for improvement. Especially in relation to the harsh tone, communication and the pressure of work, it says. There is also a need for increased awareness of, and easier access to, complaint procedures for the students. The report lists a total of 36 recommendations and initiatives.

"For the employees, increased knowledge about didactics, pedagogy, diversity and diagnoses must be offered, and there must be a greater involvement of the employees in finding out what can be done to lower the stress level at the clinics," the report concludes.

The department will now set up working groups to continue developing action plans and initiatives.

Around 350 students have answered all the questions in the survey. This corresponds to a response rate of 53 %. The response rate among the employees is 73 %.

Omnibus will follow up with an interview with Siri Beier Jensen, head of the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health, in August.

This text is machine translated and post-edited by Cecillia Jensen