Examining self-efficacy among recent graduates of postgraduate dental education programs

Purpose: To examine the perceived self-efficacy of dentists who recently completed Graduate Dental Education (GDE) programs and identify how closely it aligns with their supervisors’ assessments of them. Self-efficacy has been associated with academic pursuits, motivation, and engagement, which may affect how dental providers practice, seek continuing education, and pursue future opportunities. Methods: Recent graduates of military GDE programs rated their self-efficacy on specific tasks within each of the seven domains of dental competencies. Their supervisors completed a similar survey, rating the graduate's performance in the same tasks. Graduates’ mean ratings were calculated for each domain, spearman correlations were calculated for all graduate-supervisor task ratings, and the magnitude of differences between graduate and supervisor domain means were examined. Results: Graduates’ perceived self-efficacy ranged from 3.57 to 4.41 out of 5.0. Correlations for each task were universally weak (ρ = -0.04–0.27). Correlations for domain means were also weak (ρ = 0.06–0.14). Overall, graduates rated themselves lower than their supervisors, with mean differences ranging from -0.17 (p = 0.003, Cohen's d = 0.20) for Professionalism to -0.95 (p < 0.001, Cohen's d = 0.90) for Health Promotion. Conclusions: Overall, graduates’ perceived self-efficacy was moderate to high for 26 tasks across seven domains. However, in aggregate, graduates underestimated their abilities compared to performance measures from their current supervisors, although effect sizes were small. The accuracy of graduates’ self-efficacy varied by program length and the clinical specialty of their supervisors. High-performing graduates always underestimated themselves while low-performing graduates often overestimated themselves.