An International Survey of Female Dental Students' Perceptions About Gender Bias and Sexual Misconduct at Four Dental Schools.

As women enter the dental profession in increasing numbers in North America and around the world, the questions of how they perceive their environment and what kind of barriers they face are important subjects to be addressed. The aim of this study was to assess and compare women dental students' perceptions of bias in their environment and experiences of sexual misconduct at one dental school in each of four countries. In spring 2017, 1,293 female students at four dental schools in the U.S., Bulgaria, Brazil, and India were invited to participate in a 24-item survey developed by researchers from the four countries; 990 students responded (response rate 76.6%). The overall majority of the respondents reported thinking the admissions process at their school was fair (79.7%); but a fifth of U.S. and Brazilian students perceived their school was not fully embracing of females, with most Bulgarian students agreeing (87.2%) and all Indian students disagreeing. Most respondents overall perceived that male faculty members did not favor male students (79.5%) and did not think there was discrimination against female students by faculty (87.1%), but half of the U.S. respondents reported feeling discriminated against by both male faculty and male students. When the responses "I've been verbally harassed" and "I've been somewhat verbally harassed" were combined, 10.1% of the U.S. respondents reported verbal harassment, compared to 20% of Brazilian, 15% of Bulgarian, and 2% of Indian respondents. When the responses "I've been sexually assaulted" and "I've been somewhat sexually assaulted" were combined, 6% of U.S. respondents reported being sexually assaulted, compared to 6.2% of Brazilian, 2.5% of Bulgarian, and none of the Indian respondents. Almost half (46.9%) of these students overall perceived their school was not or only somewhat vigilant about issues of sexual misconduct, and only 54% said they would feel comfortable or very comfortable reporting misconduct. These results suggest that academic dental institutions in all four countries need improvements to make their environments more equitable and free of bias and sexual misconduct.

Humanism in Dental Education: A Comparison of Theory, Intention, and Stakeholder Perceptions at a North American Dental School.

In today's dental education environment, a humanistic culture is an expectation for all U.S. dental schools, codified in 2013 by its inclusion in the Commission on Dental Accreditation's standards for accreditation. The University of the Pacific Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry has made an active commitment to humanism since the mid-1970s. The aim of this study was to determine how well the school's students and faculty and staff members perceived the school was living up to its formal aspirational values and who was benefitting from the humanistic culture. Using an electronic survey, data were collected from a total of 195 students, faculty members, and staff members in 2014. Respondents were 15% of the 492 full- and part-time faculty members; 9% of the total student population of 540; and 29% of 255 staff members. In the responses, humanism was described as manifest by attributes such as caring, understanding, respect, and compassion. Although the findings confirmed the value of a humanistic culture, some portions of the school's formal definition and goals, such as good work ethic, professional responsibility, high ethical standards, increasing independence, and attainment of competence, appeared less frequently in responses. Authentic assessment of institutional culture proved challenging. Focus groups offered additional ways to assess how effectively the school lives its core value of humanism. There was recognition that more varied, robust methods were needed to assess institutional alignment with stated goals for a humanistic learning environment.

Dental Student Academic Integrity in U.S. Dental Schools: Current Status and Recommendations for Enhancement.

Cheating incidents in 2006-07 led U.S. dental schools to heighten their efforts to enhance the environment of academic integrity in their institutions. The aims of this study were to document the measures being used by U.S. dental schools to discourage student cheating, determine the current incidence of reported cheating, and make recommendations for enhancing a culture of integrity in dental education. In late 2014-early 2015, an online survey was distributed to academic deans of all 61 accredited U.S. dental schools that had four classes of dental students enrolled; 50 (82%) responded. Among measures used, 98% of respondents reported having policy statements regarding student academic integrity, 92% had an Honor Code, 96% provided student orientation to integrity policies, and most used proctoring of final exams (91%) and tests (93%). Regarding disciplinary processes, 27% reported their faculty members only rarely reported suspected cheating (though required in 76% of the schools), and 40% disseminated anonymous results of disciplinary hearings. A smaller number of schools (n=36) responded to the question about student cheating than to other questions; those results suggested that reported cheating had increased almost threefold since 1998. The authors recommend that schools add cheating case scenarios to professional ethics curricula; disseminate outcomes of cheating enforcement actions; have students sign a statement attesting to compliance with academic integrity policies at every testing activity; add curricular content on correct writing techniques to avoid plagiarism; require faculty to distribute retired test items; acquire examination-authoring software programs to enable faculty to generate new multiple-choice items and different versions of the same multiple-choice tests; avoid take-home exams when assessing independent student knowledge; and utilize student assessment methods directly relevant to clinical practice.

Profile of Institutional Ethics Committees in Dental Teaching Institutions in Kerala, India.

OBJECTIVES: To assess the existence, structure, and functioning of Institutional Ethics Committees (IECs) in dental teaching institutions in Kerala. METHODOLOGY: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted by personally approaching Heads of Institutions/Ethics Committee (EC) in-charge of all dental colleges (23) in Kerala. The validated questionnaire consisted of two parts. The first part pertained to details of institutions, and the second part assessed the structure and functioning of the IEC. The data obtained was tabulated and analyzed using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: Of the participating 17 colleges, 13 colleges had a functioning IEC. Only four of these IECs were accredited to a central agency. Only one among the 12 colleges completely adhered to recommended structure. Regarding the functioning of IECs, 69% of the IECs had neither a separate application form for ethical review of proposals nor a proforma for its evaluation. On average, more than ten proposals were reviewed in a single EC meeting in 54% of the colleges. Nearly 40% of the IECs had no representation of a lay person. CONCLUSION: The absence of IEC in four colleges and non-accreditation to a central agency was a matter of concern. Enforced accreditation is the need of the hour to ensure ethical protection to human participants.

Ethics and the electronic health record in dental school clinics.

Electronic health records (EHRs) are a major development in the practice of dentistry, and dental schools and dental curricula have benefitted from this technology. Patient data entry, storage, retrieval, transmission, and archiving have been streamlined, and the potential for teledentistry and improvement in epidemiological research is beginning to be realized. However, maintaining patient health information in an electronic form has also changed the environment in dental education, setting up potential ethical dilemmas for students and faculty members. The purpose of this article is to explore some of the ethical issues related to EHRs, the advantages and concerns related to the use of computers in the dental operatory, the impact of the EHR on the doctor-patient relationship, the introduction of web-based EHRs, the link between technology and ethics, and potential solutions for the management of ethical concerns related to EHRs in dental schools.

Student-to-student local anesthesia injections in dental education: moral, ethical, and legal issues.

This article reports the findings of a survey-based study conducted to determine U.S. dental schools' institutional protocols regarding the practice of students' administering local anesthetic injections to fellow students as part of their process of learning this skill. The majority of schools ask students to practice local anesthetic injections on each other without obtaining informed consent.

Os problemas éticos no atendimento a pacientes na clínica odontológica de ensino / Ethical problems in patient care at a dental school clinic

Estudo empírico, exploratório, de abordagem qualitativa, com professores de disciplinas clínicas no curso de Odontologia de uma universidade pública, com o objetivo de identificar e analisar os problemas éticos que permeiam o atendimento a pacientes na clínica odontológica de ensino da respectiva universidade. Os dados foram coletados por meio de entrevistas semi-estruturadas e analisados através da técnica da análise de conteúdo, utilizando como referenciais os princípios bioéticos da autonomia do paciente e da confidencialidade das informações. No processo de análise, emergiram quatro categorias que apontam a existência de vários problemas éticos no cotidiano do atendimento a pacientes na clínica de ensino. Entre eles, estão o agendamento de pacientes-reserva, o privilégio do atendimento de conhecidos de professores e funcionários, a falta de informações fornecidas aos pacientes sobre a realização de procedimentos terapêuticos e de imagens fotográficas, distorções no uso do termo de consentimento informado, etc. Ficou clara a condição de vulnerabilidade a qual os pacientes da clínica são constantemente submetidos e a importância e responsabilidade dos professores no processo de formação da competência ética dos futuros cirurgiões-dentistas.

An exploratory, descriptive and qualitative survey was conducted at the Dentistry School, Santa Catarina State Federal University, Brazil, in order to identify and analyze the ethical problems involved in patient care at this teaching clinic. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with professors of clinical disciplines and assessed through the Analysis of Content technique, using the bioethical principles of the autonomy of the patient and the confidentiality of the information as references. Some analysis categories were identified, pointing to the existence of several ethical problems in the daily patient care routines at this teaching clinic. They include scheduling stand-by patients, favored care for the friends of lecturers and employees, a lack of information offered to patients on treatment and imaging procedures, distortions in the use of deed of informed consent, etc. The constantly vulnerable situation of the patients became quite clear, together with the importance and responsibility of the professors in building up the ethical competence of future dentists.

The new Glasgow medical and dental graduation declaration.

The medical and dental graduation ceremony at the University of Glasgow in July 2003 marked not only the 300th anniversary of the first Glasgow medical graduation, but also the first major revision of the graduation oath. This paper records the process, and explains the reasons, behind the revision of the oath and the introduction of a new graduation declaration. The new declaration provides continuity with the past, while addressing current and future challenges for professionalism in medicine.

Ethical reflection in dentistry: first steps at the Faculty of Dental Surgery of Toulouse.

The goal of this work is to contribute to ethical reflection in the dental profession through the example of a survey of ethical reflection and ethical issues in dentistry conducted at the dental school of Toulouse. A written survey was given to the heads of departments and to the sixth-year students and also to the dental faculty at the hospital dental clinic in order to estimate their level of understanding and concern about these topics.