ABSTRACT
Using all-inclusive data from 126 U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs health care facilities that provide dental services, this study identified the staffing infrastructure under which the Veterans Health Administration can provide graduate dental education without compromising dental clinic productivity. From regression analyses, we found that teaching residents has a negative impact on staff dentists' productivity; however, when the dental assistant to provider ratio is greater than or equal to 1.0, dental residents' workload contribution can offset the negative impact on overall clinic productivity. In the presence of dental residents, the dental assistant, front-desk personnel, and dental treatment room to provider ratios have a positive impact on productivity. The optimal ratios were calculated as 1.5 for dental assistants, 2.1 for dental treatment rooms, and 0.57 for front-desk personnel.
Subject(s)
Dental Clinics/organization & administration , Education, Dental, Graduate/organization & administration , Efficiency, Organizational , Internship and Residency/organization & administration , Cross-Sectional Studies , Dental Assistants/statistics & numerical data , Dental Care/organization & administration , Dental Care/statistics & numerical data , Dental Service, Hospital , Dental Staff/statistics & numerical data , Dentists/statistics & numerical data , Hospitals, Teaching , Hospitals, Veterans , Humans , Internship and Residency/statistics & numerical data , Teaching/organization & administration , Teaching/statistics & numerical data , United States , WorkloadABSTRACT
Data from the 2010 Learners' Perceptions Survey (LPS) administered through the Office of Academic Affiliations, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) were analyzed to identify factors associated with dental residents' satisfaction with the VA as a clinical training environment. Satisfaction scores were linked to clinic workloads, dental procedure complexity levels, staffing patterns, and facility infrastructure data to explore conditions that may improve residents' satisfaction. Findings supported the construct validity of the LPS survey data and underscored the importance of maintaining optimal ratios of attending dentists, dental assistants, and administrative staff to residents so that each trainee will have opportunities to perform an adequate level of dental workload. As programs strive to improve the quality of graduate dental education, findings from this study are vital for setting curriculum design guidelines and for providing infrastructure support for dental resident education.