What makes a good dentist and do recent trainees make the grade? The views of vocational trainers.
OBJECTIVE
The aim of this paper is to examine the factors that vocational trainers regard as important in a 'good' dentist and to assess whether they think recent graduates were achieving these factors.


METHODS
The study was based on a statistical analysis of returns from a postal questionnaire.


METHODS
Postal questionnaires were sent to all vocational advisors in England who then sent them on to a number of their vocational trainers.


METHODS
The questionnaire was analysed using various statistical techniques including factor analysis. Analysis was undertaken to determine whether student or trainer characteristics influenced the trainer's responses.


RESULTS
The vocational trainers judged that the group of skills that contribute to technical ability are the most important component in making a 'good' dentist. However, the most important single skill is communication with patients, closely followed by diagnostic skills and communication with the dental team. The areas where trainees are most likely to fall short in terms of actual as compared to desired performance are in areas of technical ability.


CONCLUSIONS
Overall, recent trainees scored rather well when compared with an idealised good dentist. However, it is clear that more evaluation of vocational training is needed. Recent studies, including this one have looked at several different aspects of vocational training. However, the time seems ripe for a full-scale prospective evaluation.
Buck
D
D
Department of Dental Public Health & Oral Health Services Research, Guy's, King's and St Thomas' Dental Institute, King's College London.
Malik
S
S
Murphy
N
N
Patel
V
V
Singh
S
S
Syed
B
B
Vorah
N
N
D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D003812:Dentist-Patient Relations; D003815:Dentists / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D004497:Education, Dental; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008611:Mentors / Q000523:psychology / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012044:Regression Analysis; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom