Transcript Do trainers think their new dental trainees are prepared for practice?

Dr Catherine Coelho
Dr Robert Coster
Dr Sally Hanks
Priska Schoenborn
Peninsula School of Dentistry and Educational Development &
PedRIO
Do trainers think their new dental trainees are prepared
for practice?
Introduction:
In the UK new dental graduates must successfully complete a year as a Dental Foundation Trainee (DFT) in NHS General
Dental Practice prior to undertaking any future employment within NHS arrangements.
This study aimed to investigate Foundation Trainers’ opinions on the ‘preparedness for practice’ of their DFTs. Few studies in
the dental literature relate to this with the most recent suggesting that overall trainers “report few problems” (Gilmour et al 2014).
A prepared graduate is described as ‘a safe beginner’ by the GDC (2012) who should be able to “carry out patient centred
clinical care, communicate effectively, demonstrate professionalism and team-working skills, recognise their limits and know
when to seek help” (Ali et al, 2014).
Method:
Online questionnaires were sent to all Dental Foundation Trainers (n=667) via their
organisational committee. “Preparedness for Practice” was linked to positive and negative
personal attributes, demographic data including undergraduate institution, and
characteristics related to GDC published domains (GDC 2012 and 2013): see figure 1.
Trainers were asked to assess the future employability of their trainee, and provide free text
data on best and worse attributes.
Professionalism
Clinical
Communication
Management
and Leadership
Figure 1: GDC Preparing for Practice domains for learning outcomes for the
dental team
Results:
A response rate of 23% was obtained.
Opinion was split amongst trainers as to whether their dental graduates were prepared for practice (42% agree; 32% disagree).
More trainers reported that they would employ their trainee (52%) than thought they were prepared for practice (42%).
Trainers rated communication as the most important attribute in being prepared.
The current FD was well prepared
for their foundation year
I would employ my current FD
Agree
Agree
Neither Agree or Disagree
Neither Agree or Disagree
Disagree
Disagree
0
20
40
60
Frequency
80
Figure 2: overall agreement with the
statement “my current Foundation
Dentist was well prepared for their
foundation year “
0
20
40
60
Frequency
80
Figure 3: overall agreement with the
statement “If I had opportunity I
would employ my Foundation
Dentist”
Figure 4: wordle depicting response to question “what is the best aspect of
your Foundation Dentist?”
Conclusion:
Potential future employability does not appear to be directly related to trainers’ perception of preparedness for dental practice.
Further data analysis is being undertaken to look at the significance of these findings.
Dental trainers agree with the GDC in reporting that they perceive communication to be the most important attribute in the
preparedness for practice of a DFT.
References:
Ali, K., Tredwin, C., Kay, E. J., Slade, A. & Pooler, J. (2014). Preparedness of dental graduates for foundation training: a qualitative study. British Dental Journal, 217(3), 145–9.
General Dental Council. (2012). Preparing for practice. Dental Team Learning Outcomes for registration.
General Dental Council. (2013). Standards for the Dental Team
Gilmour, A. S. M., Jones, R. J., Cowpe, J. G., & Bullock, a D. (2014). Communication and professionalism skills of a new graduate: the expectations and experiences of dental foundation trainers. European Journal of Dental Education, 18(4), 195–202.