What influences attitudes toward professionalism in dental students?

Abstract

Objectives: To explore dental students' attitudes toward professionalism and the environmental, institutional, and student-related factors that may be associated with these attitudes. Methods:A cross-sectional online survey, conducted in 2020, analyzed data from a convenience sample of undergraduate dental students at the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Toronto. Attitudes toward professionalism were assessed using Likert scale statements related to the American Dental Education Association professionalism values of "Fairness," "Responsibility," "Respect," and "Service-mindedness." Codes ranging from 1 to 5 were assigned for the different levels of agreement and an "attitudes toward professionalism score" (ATPS) was computed by summing the codes for all the statements. Greater agreement with the statements or a higher ATPS indicated more positive attitudes toward professionalism. Association of the ATPS with environmental, institutional, and student-related factors was investigated using non-parametric tests and linear regression. Results:The survey yielded a response rate of 51.4% (n = 221). The majority of respondents agreed with all professionalism statements. Results showed that the ATPS was significantly associated with and decreased for students who viewed their future patients as consumers (β = −3.41, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −5.21, −1.60), experienced unprofessional faculty behavior (β = −2.45, 95% CI: −4.88, −0.01), and chose to pursue dentistry for financial benefit (β = −2.55, 95% CI: −4.63, −0.47). Conclusion: This sample of dental students generally had positive attitudes toward professionalism and numerous factors were associated with these attitudes. Enhancing the instruction and reinforcement of professional attitudes may be important to students' application of professionalism in decisions regarding clinical practice.

How do dental students perceive the role of dental professionals?

“…Two hundred and twenty‐one complete responses for the survey were collected (response rate of 51.4%). While the frequency distributions for all the categorical exposure variables have been provided elsewhere, a snapshot of the descriptive characteristics of the sample is presented here in Table 1 [29]. A majority (67.4%) of the students were 24 years of age or older and 31.7% were in the first year of their dental program.…”

“…Conceptual framework for perceptions of professionalism in dental students [29] [Color figure can be viewed at wileyonlinelibrary.com]…”

“…In the survey, perceptions of professionalism were evaluated through three methods, namely, attitudes toward professionalism (ATP) in relation to the values “Fairness,” “Responsibility,” “Respect,” and “Service‐mindedness,” as given by ADEA, along with moral inclusion (MI) and perceived professional roles (PPR), which assessed the ability of students to apply these values in the practice of dentistry (Figure 1) [13, 29]. This analysis presents the evaluation of perceptions of professionalism in dental students as assessed through PPR, and the impact of the various environmental, institutional, and student‐related factors (exposure variables specified above) on PPR.…”

“…It was pilot tested by eight dental public health graduate students at the faculty for ease of completion and face validity. The survey contained 43 questions and was developed using a conceptual framework outlining the environmental, institutional and student-related factors that could affect students' professionalism, as well as the methods for evaluating professionalism (Figure 1) [29]. With regards to the factors, the survey assessed several among those listed in Figure 1.…”

“…Descriptive characteristics of the sample[29] Binary and multivariable logistic regression for the odds of perceiving dental professionals as businesspersons…”