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Medical education and training
Research
Developing a national dental education research strategy: priorities, barriers and enablers
  1. Rola Ajjawi1,
  2. Karen L Barton2,
  3. Ashley A Dennis3,
  4. Charlotte E Rees4
  1. 1Centre for Assessment in Research and Digital Learning, Deakin University, Geelong, Victoria, Australia
  2. 2Division of Food and Drink, School of Science, Engineering & Technology, Abertay University, Dundee, UK
  3. 3Centre for Medical Education, University of Dundee, Dundee, UK
  4. 4Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences, Monash University, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
  1. Correspondence to Dr Rola Ajjawi; rola.ajjawi{at}deakin.edu.au

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to identify national dental education research (DER) priorities for the next 3–5 years and to identify barriers and enablers to DER.

Setting Scotland.

Participants In this two-stage online questionnaire study, we collected data with multiple dental professions (eg, dentistry, dental nursing and dental hygiene) and stakeholder groups (eg, learners, clinicians, educators, managers, researchers and academics). Eighty-five participants completed the Stage 1 qualitative questionnaire and 649 participants the Stage 2 quantitative questionnaire.

Results Eight themes were identified at Stage 1. Of the 24 DER priorities identified, the top three were: role of assessments in identifying competence; undergraduate curriculum prepares for practice and promoting teamwork. Following exploratory factor analysis, the 24 items loaded onto four factors: teamwork and professionalism, measuring and enhancing performance, dental workforce issues and curriculum integration and innovation. Barriers and enablers existed at multiple levels: individual, interpersonal, institutional structures and cultures and technology.

Conclusions This priority setting exercise provides a necessary first step to developing a national DER strategy capturing multiple perspectives. Promoting DER requires improved resourcing alongside efforts to overcome peer stigma and lack of valuing and motivation.

  • dental education research
  • priority setting
  • online questionnaire
  • EDUCATION & TRAINING (see Medical Education & Training)
  • STATISTICS & RESEARCH METHODS

This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt and build upon this work, for commercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2016-013129

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    Footnotes

    • Twitter Follow Rola Ajjawi @r_ajjawi

    • Contributors RA, KLB, AAD and CER were involved in the research design, development and testing of the questionnaires, data analysis and interpretation and writing of the manuscript. RA and KLB recruited participants, collected the data and met with DERG regularly.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Funding This project was funded by NHS Education for Scotland (NES) and the Scottish Dental Education Research Group (DERG).

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Ethics approval Ethical approval was obtained from the University of Dundee Ethics Committee and reciprocal approval was obtained from respective universities across Scotland.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

    • Data sharing statement No additional data are available.