The Ukrainian health care system is undergoing permanent reforming, the ultimate goal of which is considered to be the implementation of a new model which would provide high quality and accessibility of medical care for population and meet the economic and social present-day realities. One of the reform stages is the transformation of specialized dental medical establishments with the status of municipal city institutions into communal non-profit enterprises which should provide paid services. The regulatory framework adopted does not cover all sides of the complex and financially costly process of reforming; at the legislative level, dental care is not allocated as a separate type of medical care, which, in turn, would create a legal basis for the provision of such care at all levels, including primary, subject to funding from the state budget and local government sources. Even more questions arise regarding the place of the higher medical education establishments in the reformed health care system and their relationship with clinical treatment institutions in connection with a change in their legal status and transition to the principles of self-accounting. New conditions for the practical health care functioning fundamentally change the requirements for undergraduate training of higher education applicants in the specialty “Dentistry”, in which, along with the scientific and theoretical aspects, the practical component plays a leading role. Undergraduate training of the higher education applicants in the specialty “Dentistry” in Ukraine is carried out generally in 21 establishments of higher education, among which 13 establishments are subordinate to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, 2 to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine and 6 are private institutions. However, not all clinical rooms in specialized departments of higher education establishments are supplied with modern equipment for conducting the educational and medical-diagnostic process, at the same time, it is important that the practical training of dental students takes place under the conditions of applying innovative medical-diagnostic technologies and modern equipment, moreover, it is important that students understand the wide possibilities of such technologies. One of the ways to solve the problem of high-quality practical training of applicants should be the establishment of university dental clinics in which dental students would have the opportunity to conduct medical work, which would be free of charge for patients, and master practical skills; but establishment of such clinics requires significant financial costs. The practice of dental students has always been a decisive component in practical training, but its implementation in state budgetary and municipal specialized medical institutions, considering their reforming and obtaining the status of enterprise, seems rather problematic. In this connection, the wider involvement of private clinics and offices in students’ dental practice, especially taking into account the constant annual growth of their number in the country and more modern equipment is of great importance. Internships in European medical institutions and university clinics for the exchange program or as a part of the academic mobility implementation, in particular when there are no significant differences in curricula, are promising in the context of modern educational trends. Conclusion. The reform of Ukrainian health care system which is currently taking place, requires significant changes in the undergraduate education of the applicants in the specialty “Dentistry” and the improvement of their practical training, which should be conducted in specialized clinical departments of higher medical education establishments, in reformed medical institutions and university clinics, however, the lack of appropriate regulatory framework, legal unsettled relations between educational and medical institutions do not provide implementation of new approaches and opportunities, significantly limiting them.
dentistry, undergraduate education, practical training, healthcare institutions, reforming
«Bulletin of problems biology and medicine» Issue 1 (155), 2020 year, 240-243 pages, index UDK 378.147.88:614.253.4
