Beyond traditional metrics: the holistic role of multisource feedback in comprehensive dental clinical education

Introduction With dental education progressively moving toward competency-based training models, the importance of multidimensional evaluation has continued to grow. This study introduces multisource feedback into clinical internships of undergraduate dental students for the first time. Methods In this study, we developed a tailored 360-degree evaluation system for undergraduate clinical training. Participants included 77 students, two clinical instructors, and one nursing staff from PKUSS. A total of 913 questionnaires were distributed electronically to all eligible participants. Assessment scores were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Competency differences between the two clinical instructors were compared using a paired-samples t -test, while variations among multisource ratings of student competencies were examined using the Friedman test. When the Friedman test indicated a significant difference, post-hoc pairwise comparisons were performed using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test, with a Bonferroni-adjusted significance level set at 0.0167. Results The overall response rate was 98.8%. The dental students achieved an average total score of 86.78, demonstrating good performance across all competency domains—professionalism, clinical competence, communication and collaboration, and learning capacity. The two clinical instructors scored 90.63 and 91.37, respectively, with no statistically significant difference between them. However, significant differences were observed among the three rater groups—clinical instructors, the nursing staff, and peers—in their assessments of students' collaboration ( p = 0.012) and communication (p = 0.043) skills. Post-hoc pairwise comparisons indicated that clinical instructors rated students' collaboration skills significantly higher than both the nursing staff (9.08 ± 1.11 vs. 7.82 ± 1.18; p = 0.014) and peers (9.08 ± 1.11 vs. 8.18 ± 1.02; p = 0.016). Additionally, the nursing staff provided significantly lower ratings for communication skills compared to peers (7.98 ± 0.89 vs. 9.01 ± 1.12; p = 0.010). Conclusion Multisource feedback enables a comprehensive assessment of both medical students' competencies and the teaching abilities of instructors. The students demonstrated strong professionalism; however, there is still room for improvement in areas such as comprehensive diagnosis and treatment, collaboration, and communication skills. Further exploration and improvement are needed to effectively provide targeted training, thereby improving the effectiveness of clinical internships.