Final-Year Dental Undergraduate Attitudes towards Specialisation

Abstract

The aim of this study was to explore the attitudes towards postgraduate specialisation of final-year students at one UK dental school and to identify any possible influencing factors. A cross-sectional survey of all 73 final-year students using an anonymous self-report questionnaire was carried out. The response rate was 79%, of which nearly two-thirds were female. Age, ethnicity and parental occupation did not have an effect on the intention to specialise, although student gender did, with more females not wishing to specialise (p = 0.006). Having a ‘talent in the field’ had the largest positive influence on pursuing a specialist career (37.9% of responses), whilst the length of time needed to obtain a specialist qualification was seen as the largest negative influence (41.1% of responses). The two most popular subjects were Restorative Dentistry and Orthodontics with 24.1% and 20.7% of students listing them as their first choices, respectively. Further research could be carried out to determine if the intentions of UK undergraduates to specialise will meet the increasing specialist oral health needs of the population and which could ultimately influence future dental workforce planning.

The Pre and Final Year Dental Students’ Attitudes, Perception towards Postgraduate Specialization in Kinshasa University—Dental Medicine Department/DR. Congo

“…In this study, several students (81%) responded that they had the desire to pursue a specialist career. This result was highly different compared to other findings (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016) where only 38% of students responded to pursue a specialist career. In another hand, the present result was also consistent with other reports (Puryer & Patel, 2016) regarding the desire to pursue a specialization career in dentistry (71%), and the less encouragement by the dental educational institution (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016) in the UK within 13% and 18% respectively.…”

“…This result was highly different compared to other findings (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016) where only 38% of students responded to pursue a specialist career. In another hand, the present result was also consistent with other reports (Puryer & Patel, 2016) regarding the desire to pursue a specialization career in dentistry (71%), and the less encouragement by the dental educational institution (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016) in the UK within 13% and 18% respectively. Encouragement or orientation of the students in the field of specialization should be one of the preoccupations of the Dental educational institution as was mentioned that (Scarbecz & Ross, 2007) students were six times more likely to specialize if they received encouragement compared to the student who had not.…”

“…The findings of these studies seem to point out the financially lucrative profession, job security, desire to help the people, opportunity to utilize the technical skills, self-employed, talent in the field of study, and altruism as the most dominant motivational factors. With regard to the most preferred intended specialty by the students, previous studies reported Restorative dentistry in the UK (Fisher, Wilson, & Bartlett, 2007), later Orthodontics in the same institution (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016;Puryer & Patel, 2016), Orthodontics in Japan, Canada, USA and Oral Surgery as the most preferred intended specialty for Thai undergraduates' students (Karibe, Suzuki, Sekimoto, Srithavaj, Iamaroon, Warita, Kawakami, Ogata, Shirase, & Nakahara, 2007;Saeed, Jimenez, Howell, Karimbux, & Sukotjo, 2008). The length of training, cost, and disruption of life were reported to be the three greatest barriers to further dental specialization (Puryer & Patel, 2016).…”

A cross‐sectional study of confidence in minor surgical skills amongst junior dentists

“…Due to the unique and valuable learning opportunities these posts offer, and the large amount of interest of pursuing specialty training amongst juniors, the number of dentists undertaking these posts seems likely to increase . It has even been suggested that DFT posts should all be 2 years long, with a mandatory year in an OMFS unit as a DCT .…”

“…amongst juniors, the number of dentists undertaking these posts seems likely to increase. 3 It has even been suggested that DFT posts should all be 2 years long, with a mandatory year in an OMFS unit as a DCT. 4 It would therefore be prudent to ascertain whether current OMFS DCT posts allow trainees to gain significant improvement in confidence of minor surgical procedures when compared to GDPs of similar experience.…”