Explaining the Status of Soft Skills Training in Dentistry Profession in Basic Sciences Courses and Identifying the Capabilities of These Courses for the Process-Oriented Integration of Soft Skills

Background: The dentistry profession requires a high level of soft skills whose training seems necessary to respond to the community and increase the quality of specialized practice. Objectives: The present study was conducted to examine the status of soft skills training in dentistry basic sciences courses and identify the capabilities of each basic sciences course for the process-oriented integration of soft skills in the dentistry profession. Methods: The present qualitative study was conducted in 2018-2019.Semi-structured interviews were used to collect the data. The study’s statistical population included the faculty members of the basic sciences of Isfahan and Mazandaran universities of medical sciences Iran, using purposive sampling. Moreover, the content analysis method was used to analyze the data.Results: Soft skills training in the dentistry profession was not one of the educational objectives of basic sciences courses in this field, and teaching and evaluation methods used by professors had less capability to develop these skills. Additionally, the results showed that most of the identified soft skills in five domains had the integration capability in most basic sciences courses. Only some differences were observed in the integration of soft skills in the cognitiveintellectual domain.Conclusion: It is suggested to include soft skills training in the objectives of dentistry basic sciences courses and consider the capabilities of each course and curricula to correct teaching and evaluation methods in this regard. Furthermore, it is recommended to strengthen the capabilities of basic sciences professors to integrate soft skills.