K Ali; C Tredwin; E Kay; A Slade; J Pooler

PREPAREDNESS OF UK DENTAL GRADUATES FOR FOUNDATION TRAINING

Background & Aims

Articulate the concept of preparedness & identify key

attributes of preparedness of a dental graduate.

Methodology: Overview

Qualitative Research

Semi-structured Interviews

Setting

Participants

RE Approval

Clin

ical

• History & Examination

• Radiography& radiology

• Treatment planning

• Local Anaesthesia

• Caries removal

• Basic periodontology

• Fillings

• Endodontics

• Tooth Extractions

• Impressions

• Partial & Full Dentures

• Crown & Bridgework

• Medical Emergencies

Beh

avio

ura

l

• Communication skills

• Professionalism

• Team-working

• Lifelong learning

Capable of providing routine dental care to patients

• Safe

• Aware of own limits

• Holistic approach

Emerging Themes

Surgical Extractions

Molar Endo

Full Dentures

Increased Responsibility

Direct Supervision

Time pressures

Patients’

Expectations

Risk of Litigation

Treatment Planning

Emotional Stability

Professional relationships

Personal issues

Financial issues

Communication Skills

“I think communication skills is the most important skill in dentistry …….if you carve beautiful amalgams, but you are not a very nice person, no one is going to come to you”. .

Treatment Planning

“I think one area, where generally they are least well-prepared, that’s the aspect of treatment planning”

“The ones that I’ve seen, obviously they are graduates from different universities but basically all of them I have seen recently lack the appropriate skills in treatment planning, it is the number one thing”

Confidence Competence

“Confidence may not relate to competence. It may be more of a personality trait. ..we’ve all met people who think they are absolutely wonderful and the rest of us say they won’t be our clinician of choice for procedure X or Y!”

Confidence Competence

One may have unconscious incompetence amongst some of those who think they are very good whereas, perhaps those who lack self-confidence are aware they are not very good. So we are dealing with conscious incompetence.

Insight

“The dilemma for trainers is the unconfident trainee will ask for a lot more help and advice than the confident ones, both probably have the same needs but the insight levels of both groups vary”.

Expectations of Trainers

“Trainers sometimes look with rose-tinted spectaclesback at to how they were as graduates.

Yes, I’ve probably done twice or three times as many ofmost operative procedures as a modern graduate butwhen I look back I was pretty incompetent at most thingsI did!”

Future Research Plan