The perceived barriers of vocational dental practitioners in London to specialisation

Abstract

Objective To investigate the short-and long-term career aspirations and barriers to postgraduate study of recently qualifi ed vocational dental practitioners (VDPs). Method One hundred and eight vocational dental practitioners in London were asked to complete a questionnaire survey. Results The questionnaires were completed by 94 respondents (85%) and results indicated that the majority of the VDPs wanted to continue to work in general dental practice after vocational training (VT). Nearly 80% of the VDPs were considering undertaking further postgraduate studies in the form of the MFDS examination and 25% were seriously considering undertaking specialist training. Perceived barriers to specialist training included the time, cost and requirement of gaining the MFDS. Conclusions The questionnaire showed that despite recently completing their undergraduate education, VDPs were considering obtaining further qualifications and potentially following a pathway leading to specialist training.

Final-Year Dental Undergraduate Attitudes towards Specialisation

“…A recent study found that a large proportion (71%) of UK undergraduates expressed a desire to specialise following graduation, with Orthodontics being the most popular intended specialty [ 3 ]. This supports an earlier UK study which found that 83% of recent graduates were either ‘certain of’ or ‘considering’ pursuing a specialist career, [ 4 ] although for this group of young dentists, Restorative dentistry was the most preferred intended pathway. For these recent graduates, the ‘length of training’, ‘cost’ and ‘disruption of life’ were reported to be the three greatest barriers to further specialisation.…”

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

“…Even though gender is a controversial determinant in choosing specialty (Fisher, Wilson, & Bartlett, 2007;Scarbecz & Ross, 2007;Dhima, Petropoulos, Han, Kinnunen, & Wright, 2012), the present study found gender with an impact on the choice of some specialties. This agrees with other reports (Karibe, Suzuki, Sekimoto, Srithavaj, Iamaroon, Warita, Kawakami, Ogata, Shirase, & Nakahara, 2007) where males were more likely to advance into an Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery field, whereas females were more interested in Paediatric Dentistry.…”

“…The findings seem to be related to each country realities, politic and the time's context of the study. In UK 83% of graduate's dental student's preferred Restorative dentistry as the most intended specialty (Fisher, Wilson, & Bartlett, 2007), while nine years later, 71% of dental students of the same institution expressed to specialize with Orthodontics specialty (James, Veselina, & Alisa, 2016). Studies views of Japanese, Canadian and Thai undergraduates found that Orthodontics was the most preferred subject in the first two countries, and Oral Surgery in the latter country (Karibe, Suzuki, Sekimoto, Srithavaj, Iamaroon, Warita, Kawakami, Ogata, Shirase, & Nakahara, 2007).…”

“…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).…”

“…The length of training, cost, and disruption of life were reported to be the three greatest barriers to further dental specialization (Puryer & Patel, 2016). Gender is a controversial determinant in choosing specialty (Fisher, Wilson, Bartlett, 2007;Scarbecz & Ross, 2007;Dhima, Petropoulos, Han, Kinnunen, & Wright, 2012).…”