Introduction Dental undergraduate students encounter anxiety in their professional years of study, the impact of which is reflected on their overall performance. Various coping techniques are advocated that help individuals to deal effectively with the adverse effects of anxiety. Objective/aims The objectives of this study were to determine the level of anxiety encountered by dental undergraduate students during clinical rotations, the clinical procedures precipitating it and the number of different coping strategies (problem solving, social seeking support, and avoidance) used by students for anxiety management. Methods A descriptive, questionnaire‐based, cross‐sectional study was conducted on the third and fourth‐year undergraduate dental students from six colleges of Islamabad and Rawalpindi. A total of 353 students were included in the study, and their participation in the study was anonymous and voluntary. The administered questionnaire consisted of three parts: Part 1: Moss and McManus Scale (MMM) for anxiety‐provoking situations; part 2: Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HAM‐A) for the level of anxiety, and Part 3: Coping Strategy Indicator Scale (CSI scale) to determine the frequency of coping strategies used by students. The data were collected and analyzed using SPSS version 22.0. Results A majority of participants (96.3%) felt mild to moderate levels of anxiety in the clinical settings. Students felt more anxious about getting infected by the patient (62%), extracting the wrong tooth (46.5%), and getting a wrong diagnosis (43.1%). A significant number of participants (47%) used problem‐solving mechanisms to overcome their anxiety. Conclusion Mild to moderate levels of clinical anxiety prevailed in most dental undergraduate students. The top clinical situations precipitating anxiety were getting infected by patients and extracting the wrong tooth. Measures should be taken to encourage a vigorous, confidence‐enhancing environment for students. This will reduce their levels of clinical anxiety along with training and foster healthy coping strategies to deal with unavoidable anxiety.

BACKGROUND: Since the field of health professions education (HPE) is an emerging trend in the country, educationists face considerable challenges in their workplaces while proposing any changes in the existing systems of academic institutions. The challenges affect the quality of work, hinder innovation, and create a dysfunctional work environment, non-conducive for both personal and professional progress. The study was conducted to explore the various kinds of challenges faced by educationists while bringing changes to the existing systems of academic institutions in Pakistan. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A qualitative exploratory research design was used to explore the challenges faced by health professions educationists in Pakistan during their efforts to bring about changes in the existing systems and structures. Thirteen health professions educationists working in various academic institutions of Pakistan were interviewed through one-to-one semi-structured interviews from March to May 2022. The data obtained were analyzed through manual thematic analysis, and themes and subthemes were identified. RESULTS: Four themes emerged after qualitative data analysis explaining the predominant challenges faced by educationists. These included challenges related to faculty and staff, institutional constraints, challenges from leadership, and stakeholders’ apprehension. CONCLUSION: Challenges are inevitable at every workplace but the field of health professions education in Pakistan faces significant challenges in institutions, leading to hindrance in positive developments and innovations in the field. Educationists should be skilled at recognizing the predominant challenges in the workplace and be equipped with strategies to manage conflicts to achieve productive results and to promote the long-overdue reforms in the field.

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OBJECTIVE: Conflicts are inevitable in all human interactions. Clinicians at workplaces experience both personal and professional conflicts. Dental clinicians engage in multidisciplinary teamwork during their practice, which exposes them to a variety of conflicting situations. The study aimed to explore the trend of different conflict management styles practiced by dentists while working in collaborative practices. METHODOLOGY: The study was cross sectional descriptive survey in which 146 dental clinicians from multiple institutions participated with voluntary and informed consent. Rahim Organizational Conflict Inventory-II (ROCI-II) tool was used to collect data against the use of conflict management styles namely, Collaborating, Accommodating, Competing, Avoiding and Compromising. The obtained data were analyzed through SPSS 25.0. The data were categorized according to the 5 styles of conflict management and association with the variables of gender, position in organization, and type of organization was seen for each conflict management style. RESULTS: The study revealed that 54.8% of participants had collaborating style followed by avoiding style (18.5%) whereas, competing style was least predominant (3.4%). Both genders had collaborating style as most predominant style. No strong difference was seen in the frequency of conflict management styles between the dentists belonging to private and public institutions. Every cadre of clinicians was more inclined towards "collaborating" and "avoiding" conflict management style. Besides these two styles, house officers and demonstrators were more "accommodating" while residents and assistant professors were more "compromising". CONCLUSION: Dental clinicians in the present study mostly used collaborative style for conflict management in their practices.The awareness of conflict management styles is important so that the use of positive conflict management styles could be maximized. The use of effective conflict management styles should be taught to young dentists in order to equip them with necessary tools for everyday collaborations at clinical workplaces. KEYWORDS: Conflict, Conflict management, dentists, workplace