Dental Students Perceptions Regarding Practical And Management Skills And Their Career Aspirations

Abstract

There is some evidence that dental students regard clinical skills as more important than management skills. It would therefore be valuable to investigate whether management skills are perceived to be relevant and necessary for their career aspirations. This study aimed to identify students’ perceptions regarding the most important skills (other than clinical skills) they have to learn in the dental curriculum and to relate these perceptions to their future career aspirations. The study was conducted in the academic year 2015-2016 by means of an anonymous questionnaire among second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixthyear dental students at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Ovidius University of Constanta. From the desire to improve the quality of dental education and consequently the need for graduates possess adequate and needed competences to face the challenges of the labor market, the faculty leadership requested from the psychologists from the University Center for Counselling and Career Guidance, to develop and interpret the results of a questionnaire. Clinical skills are generally considered extremely important. Leadership, communication and management skills contribute to the success of practicing as dental health professionals. Most students indicated that they would like to improve themselves by participating in continuing education courses for updating the working techniques if afforded the opportunity. Also, the results have emphasized the importance that the dental curriculum to relate with the future career aspirations. The development of management skills is therefore becoming crucial for dentists to manage their practices successfully and this will contribute to an increasing engaged workforce.

Keywords: Dental studentscareer aspirationskills

1.Introduction

There is a general consensus on the future of dental education that highlights the need for careful

recruitment and continued development of students and faculty as essential to the educational changes for

future (Field, 1995). Dental education aims to produce competent graduates with the ability to provide

quality care to the patients that will ease the integration into professional practice. This means

successfully completing their studies, receiving their degree, and being able to insert themselves into the

labor market (Raftu, 2016a).

To follow a career as a practitioner, graduating students are expected to be competent in providing

quality comprehensive patient care and should also be prepared to adapt to the society needs and be

competent in the practice management. Educational principles of the dental schools should facilitate the

students’ primary objective of integration into dental practice, while ensuring that students gain essential

competency in providing quality comprehensive patient care (Manogue, 2011). The European and the

American Dental Association recommended that curriculum restructuring should focus on evidence based

patient care as the fundamental part of the clinical education, along with highlighting the need for

teamwork, practice management, and knowledge of information technology (Manogue, 2011).

The ideal academic environment may be defined as the one that best prepares students for their

future professional life and contributes towards their personal development, psychosomatic and social

well-being. An ideal environment should place the dental students at the centre of the education process

and provide material, equipment and facilities that best help them to gain competencies in a shorter period

of time. Educational content should be made available to students through a variety of methods, because

individual learning styles and preferences may vary considerably. The importance of their vocational

interests and personality traits cannot be challenged because satisfaction of the doctor's professional

derived from performing a work that fits within vocational its staff and personality structure can facilitate

or alter this performance (Raftu, 2016b).

Once graduate enter the workforce, most practicing dentists become small business owners in

individual or group practices. Therefore, dentists manage and supervise a number of other health care

professionals including other dentists, dental assistants, laboratory technicians, and dental office

receptionists. Beginner dentists also find themselves focusing on a number of administrative tasks

including human resources, buying equipment, maintaining inventories, and dental office advertising.

Each of these areas requires skills that must be known in order to lead and manage a successful business

company. Also, for success in a private practice, excellent communication skills, self-discipline, and good

business backgrounds are essential. Development of these skills is frequently not a primary focus in the

dental school (Barron & Waldrep, 1984; Chambers, 1992).

In the dental schools’ traditional curricular plan, business and management skills are accentuated

at the dental practice management courses. These skills are also learned in ethics and behavioral sciences

courses. After a student leaves the academic environment, the business side of dentistry is often learned

through mentoring by a practitioner, on the job training, study groups, and continuing education courses.

2.Purpose of the Study

This study aimed to identify students’ perceptions regarding the most important skills (other than

clinical skills) they should learn in the undergraduate dental curriculum at the Faculty of Dental

Medicine, Ovidius University of Constanta and to relate these perceptions to their future career

aspirations.

3.Methods

From the desire to improve the quality of dental education and consequently the need for graduates

possess adequate and needed competences to face the challenges of the labor market, the faculty

leadership requested from the psychologists from the Center for Counselling and Career Guidance,

Ovidius University of Constanta to develop and interpret the results of a questionnaire.

The study was conducted in the academic year 2015-2016 by means of an anonymous

questionnaire among second-, third-, fourth-, fifth- and sixth-year dental students (225 persons) at the

Faculty of Dental Medicine, Ovidius University of Constanta. The students did not receive incentives to

participate in the study and they were under no obligation to complete the questionnaire.

All of the students received verbal information regarding the study from the research group before

deciding whether to participate. It was explained to them that there was no right or wrong answer for the

questions. The study was anonymous and all information would be available only for the group analysis.

The students had the right to refuse participation or to quit at any moment. Verbal consent was obtained

from all participants.

The questionnaire used in this study is a custom-designed questionnaire and was not piloted

before.

To obtain the maximum response rate and minimize disruption to the study, the questionnaires

were distributed following a routine lecture period. The researchers collected the completed

questionnaires immediately on completion.

Participants were asked to indicate their year of study, gender and to specify whether they would

wish to continue their study after finishing the faculty by a specialization program, competence program

or by continuing education courses for updating the working techniques. They were asked whether they

would prefer to work as an employee for a private dentist, whether they aspired to become a dental

practice owner or business partner in a dental practice. An option was also they were asked to specify

whether they wished to work abroad.

In the questionnaire was a question regarding the important skills other than clinical skills and

students had to name other most important skills.

Also, students had to express their opinion if dental practice management should be a subject in the

dental faculty curriculum plan. There was a question where students were asked to write the reasons why

they thought dental practice management should or should not be a subject in the dental faculty

curriculum plan.

We have to mention that dental practice management is introduced in the fifth- year dental faculty

curriculum. Thus, among those who participated in this study were students (n = 95, 42,22%) who were

able to express pertinent an opinion as they already have completed this discipline of study.

4.Results

4.1.Students’characteristics

From the total number of 261 targeted students, 225 (86.20%) completed the questionnaire. The

number of students per year of study varied between 41 and 53. Table 1 indicates that the respondents

were mainly female (79.55%, n=179) and their age ranged between 19 and 39 years old (year of birth

between 1977 and 1997).

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The majority (87.55%, n=197) of students agreed that dental practice management should be a

discipline in the dental faculty curriculum plan. The reasons why they thought dental practice

management should or should not be a subject in the dental faculty curriculum plan, included: ‘It has

almost the same importance as clinical skills’; ‘It will help to run a dental private practice’; ‘It will help

students to be prepared for what to expect in the business world’; ‘brings information about aspects

related to the medical activities that a dentist routinely carries out’; ‘students may not observe the

importance currently and may forget some information in time but one day will understand the role that it

will play’.

Important skills other than clinical skills as perceived by the students were: leadership and

management skills (77.6%), people skills (64.6%), communication and listening skills (46.4%) and

personal style (42.2%) were seen as the most important non-clinical skills. Among the leadership and

management skills may be mentioned teamwork, motivation, time-management, financial management,

business and decision-making skills. People skills refers to sympathy, caring, kindness, empathy,

compassion and friendliness. Communication and listening skills and personal style are referring to

thoroughness, tolerance, patience, positive attitude, enthusiasm and self-discipline. Skills less often

mentioned were related to ethics and professionalism, and entrepreneurial skills.

Students indicated their career aspirations as follows: to own private practice (45.33%, n=102), to

work in private practice (15.11%, n=34), to work abroad (13.33%, n=30) and to continue their

professional education through participation in residency exam (11.11%, n=25), 8% of the respondents

(n=18) displayed an interest in working as an employee for a private dentist, 5,33% (n=12) indicated an

interest in following the academic career, while 1,77% (n=4) did not indicate their future career

aspirations (Table 2). It is important to note that no statistically significant association could be found

between the career aspirations of students and their perception about the need that dental practice

management should be a subject in the dental faculty curriculum plan.

Most students (81.77%, n =184) indicated that they would like to improve themselves by a

specialization program, a competence program or by participating in continuing education courses for the

improvement and updating the working techniques if afforded the opportunity.

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5.Discussions

This study investigated the perceptions of dental students regarding the most important skills

(other than clinical skills) they have to learn in the undergraduate dental curriculum at the Faculty of

Dental Medicine, Ovidius University of Constanta and to relate these perceptions to their future career

aspirations. The findings of the current study are, however, unique, as they provide the first indication of

dental students’ perceptions regarding the need for dental practice management and the most important

skills (other than clinical skills) in Romania.

The findings of the current study that the majority of dental students who responded to the

questionnaire considered dental practice management to be a necessary field of study in the dental

curriculum at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, correspond to similar research carried out abroad. Previous

studies have reported that students studying health sciences are becoming increasingly aware of the need

for business training in order to have more knowledge about this (Barber, & Taichman, 2011; Field,

1995; Busari, & Brouns 2011). Qualified practising dentists also recognise the need for dental practice

management education in the faculty curriculum plan (Khami, et al. 2012).

Clinical skills are generally considered extremely important, but skills such as leadership,

communication and dental practice management contribute to the success of practicing health

professionals. Many studies acknowledged its importance in an undergraduate curriculum plan (Jawale &

Tandon 2011). Therefore, the development of management skills is becoming crucial for dentists to

manage their practices successfully (Dunning, & Tacha, 2011; Willis, 2009). These skills are often

neglected in faculty curriculum plan despite tendencies that students recognize them as crucial (Abbas, &

Benson, 2011; Kalenderian, & Timothé, 2010).

From the students’ responses, it could be concluded that leadership and management were

considered to be the most important skills to gain other than clinical skills. This study is the first to reveal

that dental students regard leadership and management as priority skills. The students’ perception that

dental practice management should be part of the dental curriculum plan is probably the result of their

perception of the complexity of the dental practice business environment and changes facing dentists.

Another possible reason for the great amount of responses that dental practice management should

be a subject in the dental faculty curriculum plan may reflect the students’ career aspirations. However,

no associations could, be found between the career aspirations of the students and their opinion about the

need for dental practice management as a subject, also not when analyzed in terms of the year of study.

The above-mentioned findings are representative of differences that may exist among dental

students with regard to career aspirations.

The results also indicated that they would like to improve themselves by a specialization program,

a competence program or by participating in continuing education courses for the improvement and

updating the working techniques if afforded the opportunity.

The findings also suggest that only a small percentage of dental students are interested to make use

of their skills abroad.

6.Conclusions

The results of this study highlighted that dental students consider that dental practice management

is an important part of the dental curriculum at the Faculty of Dental Medicine and regard leadership and

management skills as having almost the same importance as clinical skills.

Clinical skills are generally considered extremely important and leadership, communication and

management skills contribute to the success of practicing as dental health professionals. Also, the results

have emphasized the importance that the dental curriculum must relate with the future career aspirations.

The development of management skills is therefore becoming crucial for dentists to manage their

practices successfully and this will contribute to an increasing of engaged workforce.

The results of this study suggest that a closer examination of dental practice management courses

and their application to real life is warranted. Clearly, the importance of acquiring complete knowledge of

dental practice management principles is essential to a dentist’s success in practice. The rapidly changing

economic environment and its impact on the practice of dentistry suggest that dental graduates need more

business knowledge than ever before. Preparing graduates to run a dental practice using solid business

principles is fundamental for their success.

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