The dissertation deals with the problem of formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists in medical colleges on the basis of the competent approach. The state of development of the problem of the formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists in medical colleges in the course of study of professionally oriented educational disciplines of the dental direction has been analysed; the existence of contradictions between the needs of the society in the competitive medical specialists of the dentistry department, which will have a high level of professional competence and insufficient purposefulness of its formation in the conditions of a medical educational institution, has been revealed; the prevalence of classical technologies for the training of special disciplines in medical educational establishments and the need for innovation.
The historical genesis of the concepts of «competency», «competence», «professional competence» on the basis of which the interpretation of the concept «professional competence of the future dental hygienist» has been studied. Professional duties and capabilities within the limits of competence, as well as features of preparation of the future dental hygienists, based on the Ukrainian and foreign experience, have been determined.
The analysis of the scientific sources of the dental direction provided the opportunity to assess the importance of the dental hygienist profession in the prevention of dental diseases. This allowed us to assert that, despite the problems that arise in the way of the existence of the dental hygienist profession, its influence on the preservation of dental health of the population is extremely high. The importance and great need for dental hygienists requires the determination of the quality of the professional competence formation of the future dental hygienists through the use of the model of such competence, identification of its structural elements and their research.
The analysis of methodological approaches to the formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists in medical educational institutions of Ukraine has been conducted, which made it possible based on the competent model of the future dental hygienist to determine the importance of the competent approach.
It has been established that the optimum environment for the formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists is realization of certain pedagogical conditions, which ensures the formation of professional competence in the conditions of the medical college at the pre-diploma stage, namely: increasing the motivation of students to study and interest to professional activity; formation and development of vocational-pedagogical competence of teachers of dental disciplines; development of the students of professional integrated knowledge and assistance in mastering the students of the skills, abilities and experience for solving the problems of professional orientation; organization of professional-oriented educational environment for the development of autonomy and self-organization of students.
The structural-functional model of formation of the professional competence of the future dental hygienists with the following components has been worked out: target, theoretical-methodological, content, organizational-activity, and effective blocks.
The method of research-experimental work has been developed and specified; the criteria, indicators and levels of formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists have been specified; the preliminary stage of the experiment has been conducted, during which the state of formation of professional competence of the future dental hygienists was examined; the obtained results have been systematized and analysed.
The forming stage of the experiment has been carried out: the author’s model of the professional competence of the future dental hygienists has been tested; pedagogical conditions of the process, means, methods and forms of training have been developed; experimental verification of the obtained results has been carried out; approbation and implementation of research work results in the activity of medical educational institutions (colleges and schools) has been done.
The content and the results as well as the substantiated theoretical positions, practical research developments can be used by the teachers of medical educational institutions in the preparation of the future dental hygienists in the process of training and at the pre-diploma and postgraduate levels of education have been grounded.
