Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology
Abstract Background There is a social expectation that dentists demonstrate professionalism. Although the General Dental Council puts it at the heart of their regulatory agenda, there is not yet consensus on the meaning and implications of the term. Objective To explore practising dentists’ understa...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Publishing Group
2022-07-01
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| Series: | BDJ Open |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-022-00105-9 |
| _version_ | 1818193001616244736 |
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| author | Andrew Trathen Sasha Scambler Jennifer E. Gallagher |
| author_facet | Andrew Trathen Sasha Scambler Jennifer E. Gallagher |
| author_sort | Andrew Trathen |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background There is a social expectation that dentists demonstrate professionalism. Although the General Dental Council puts it at the heart of their regulatory agenda, there is not yet consensus on the meaning and implications of the term. Objective To explore practising dentists’ understanding of the character traits commonly associated with professionalism and what these mean in practice. Method Constructivist grounded theory was employed throughout this study. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with dental professionals in England recruited through theoretical sampling to saturation point. Interviews used a topic guide informed by the literature, and analysis was conducted through constant comparison during data collection. Results The study found that traits commonly associated with professionalism in the literature were difficult for dentists to define clearly or operationalise in a clinical setting. There was disagreement over how some traits should be understood, and it was unclear to participants how, or indeed if, the listed traits were directly relevant to practice in their current form. Conclusion Rather than expecting unconditional adherence to an externally imposed definition, further exploration is required to understand how health professionals make sense of professionalism by reference to their lived experiences and worldviews. In Brief Institutional expectations of professionalism, defined through character traits and behaviours, do not appear to map neatly on to the experiences of dental professionals. Straightforward, apparently uncontroversial terms elicited a wide range of responses, including disagreement. This brought in to question whether achieving consensus is possible. Analysing how our respondents understood the terms by reference to the meanings they constructed from lived experience offers deeper insights. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T00:39:27Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-e6651298ea394cc7b8ab0ca2258862da |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-807X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T00:39:27Z |
| publishDate | 2022-07-01 |
| publisher | Nature Publishing Group |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BDJ Open |
| spelling | doaj.art-e6651298ea394cc7b8ab0ca2258862da2022-12-22T00:44:18ZengNature Publishing GroupBDJ Open2056-807X2022-07-01811610.1038/s41405-022-00105-9Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminologyAndrew Trathen0Sasha Scambler1Jennifer E. Gallagher2Faculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, Centre for Host Microbiome Interactions, King’s College LondonFaculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, Centre for Host Microbiome Interactions, King’s College LondonFaculty of Dentistry, Oral & Craniofacial Sciences, Centre for Host Microbiome Interactions, King’s College LondonAbstract Background There is a social expectation that dentists demonstrate professionalism. Although the General Dental Council puts it at the heart of their regulatory agenda, there is not yet consensus on the meaning and implications of the term. Objective To explore practising dentists’ understanding of the character traits commonly associated with professionalism and what these mean in practice. Method Constructivist grounded theory was employed throughout this study. Qualitative, in-depth interviews were conducted with dental professionals in England recruited through theoretical sampling to saturation point. Interviews used a topic guide informed by the literature, and analysis was conducted through constant comparison during data collection. Results The study found that traits commonly associated with professionalism in the literature were difficult for dentists to define clearly or operationalise in a clinical setting. There was disagreement over how some traits should be understood, and it was unclear to participants how, or indeed if, the listed traits were directly relevant to practice in their current form. Conclusion Rather than expecting unconditional adherence to an externally imposed definition, further exploration is required to understand how health professionals make sense of professionalism by reference to their lived experiences and worldviews. In Brief Institutional expectations of professionalism, defined through character traits and behaviours, do not appear to map neatly on to the experiences of dental professionals. Straightforward, apparently uncontroversial terms elicited a wide range of responses, including disagreement. This brought in to question whether achieving consensus is possible. Analysing how our respondents understood the terms by reference to the meanings they constructed from lived experience offers deeper insights.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-022-00105-9 |
| spellingShingle | Andrew Trathen Sasha Scambler Jennifer E. Gallagher Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology BDJ Open |
| title | Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology |
| title_full | Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology |
| title_fullStr | Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology |
| title_full_unstemmed | Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology |
| title_short | Professionalism in dentistry: deconstructing common terminology |
| title_sort | professionalism in dentistry deconstructing common terminology |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41405-022-00105-9 |
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