The critical incident technique: a useful tool for conducting qualitative research.

The critical incident technique (CIT) is a well-established qualitative research tool used in many areas of the health sciences, including nursing, medicine, and dentistry, and their respective education systems. It is a flexible set of principles that can be modified and adapted to meet the specific situation at hand. By gathering factual reports made by observers, researchers can build a picture of the situation under study. The CIT maximizes the positive and minimizes the negative attributes of anecdotes, effectively turning anecdotes into data. In this, the first of two companion articles, the origins and current state of the CIT and its potential applications in dentistry and dental education are described.

The critical incident technique and pediatric dentistry: a worked example.

Evaluating dental students' experiences in pediatric dentistry may help dental educators better prepare graduates to treat the children in their communities. This qualitative investigation aimed to collect and analyze data using the critical incident technique (CIT). Sixty dental students at one southwestern dental school participated in 103 recorded interviews. They described 150 positive and 134 negative experiences related to the pediatric dentistry clinic. Analysis of the data resulted in the identification of four key factors related to their experiences: 1) the instructor; 2) the patient; 3) the learning process; and 4) the learning environment. The contribution made by the patient to dental students' education has not been previously addressed. The CIT is a useful data collection and analysis technique that provides rich, useful data and has many potential uses in dental education.