Values related to professionalism in dental education at the University of Chile: Student and faculty perceptions.

OBJECTIVE: It is recognised that professionalism should play a central role in dental education. However, its implementation into the curricula of dental schools is still limited. Our objective was to identify the main values related to professionalism based on the perceptions of students and faculty members from the Faculty of Dentistry, University of Chile. METHODS: A Dental Values Survey was validated and culturally adapted in order to guarantee the greatest possible internal validity. The adapted survey was administered to students and faculty members (416 and 225, respectively). The final survey contained 64 items rated on a Likert scale of 1-5. Each item was categorised according to five dimensions: Altruism, Consciousness, Personal Satisfaction, Quality of Life and Professional Status. The values were compared between faculty and students and among students at different courses. A values scale was constructed by selecting the five items with the highest average score for each dimension. RESULTS: Survey respondents composed 34.32% of the universe, of which 50.46% were faculty and 49.54% were students. Values associated with Altruism, Consciousness and Professional Status, were the highest rated by students and faculty. Values associated with Personal Satisfaction and Quality of Life received the lowest scores for both groups. CONCLUSIONS: To provide the best possible attention to patients (Consciousness), and that patients have access to affordable dental care (Altruism), are the values at the top of our scale. On the other hand, to maintain financial stability and to be well paid (Quality of Life) were the less considered.

The Dental Values Scale: development and validation.

The purpose of this study was to produce a valid scale for use in measuring the values of dental students and practitioners--the lack of which has impeded research on professionalism in dentistry. Following standard scale development procedures, we had focus groups of dental practitioners (N=23) develop a ninety-nine-item pool of value terms related to dentistry. Next, Canadian dentists (N=449) rated the relevance of each item through an online survey. They also rated the values in a generic values measure, Schwartz's Values Scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses identified twenty-five items representing five values: Altruism, Personal Satisfaction, Conscientiousness, Quality of Life, and Professional Status. These values correlate with related dimensions from Schwartz's measure; they also correspond to the values in the American Dental Education Association's statement on professionalism. We then administered the new Dental Values Scale to dental students (N=96) to determine the relationship between practitioner and student values. First-year students were higher in Conscientiousness, Altruism, and Personal Satisfaction than practitioners, but these values decreased over time to those held by the dentists. We discuss the implication of these results and the potential value of the new scale for dental education.

Third-party support for strike action.

Labor strikes are often seen as battles for public support. Members of the public are asked to show respect for a strike by refusing to cross the picket line or by joining strikers on the picket line. Such public support may affect the morale of strikers and influence the strike's duration. Despite the perceived importance of the public in labor disputes, members of third parties have not been considered in previous strike research. In 2 studies, the authors show that a new measure of third-party strike support is unidimensional and highly reliable. In both cases, union attitudes and perceptions of distributive justice were significant predictors of support for strike action. Those who are more supportive of unions in general and believe that the contract offered to the strikers was unfair were more likely to support the strike by engaging in such actions as conversing with strikers, writing letters, and refusing to cross the picket line.

Fraud and misconduct in scientific research: a definition and procedures for investigation.

Scientific fraud and misconduct appear to be on the rise throughout the scientific community. Whatever the reasons for fraud and whatever the number of cases, it is important that the academic research community consider this problem in a cool and rational manner, ensuring that allegations are dealt with through fair and impartial procedures. Increasingly, governments have either sought to regulate fraud and misconduct through legislation, or they have left it to universities and research institutions to deal with at the local level. The result has been less than uniform understanding of what constitutes scientific fraud and misconduct and a great deal of variance in procedures used to investigate such allegations. In this paper, we propose a standard definition of scientific fraud and misconduct and procedures for investigation based on natural justice and fairness. The issue of fraud and misconduct should not be left to government regulation by default. The standardized definition and procedures presented here should lead to more appropriate institutional responses in dealing with allegations of scientific fraud and misconduct.

Predicting performance in Canadian dental schools: the new CDA structured interview, a new personality assessment, and the DAT.

Using a sample of dental students (N=373) from four Canadian dental schools, this longitudinal study determined whether the new Canadian Dental Association (CDA) structured interview was a predictor of clinical and academic performance. The new interview predicted clinical performance in the third and fourth years of dental school, but not academic performance. The Canadian Dental Aptitude Test (DAT) continued to predict first- and second-year academic performance, but not clinical performance in the senior years. A personality factor, "Conscientiousness," predicted clinical and academic performance to various degrees across the four years of dental school. A second personality factor, "Openness to Experience," predicted third-year academic performance. The results suggest that a combination of scores from the DAT, a valid measure of personality, and a well-designed structured interview will provide the best prediction of those applicants who will do well in both the academic and clinical aspects of dental school.

Third-party attitudes and strain reactions to the threat of a labor strike.

The authors examined how dispute-related stressors predicted strain experienced by third parties (N = 270) and their perceptions of a potential strike by part-time faculty. Immediately preceding a strike deadline, the authors surveyed students on their support for the union, perceived fairness, perceived effects of the impending strike, and perceived control. The authors also measured perceptions regarding information about the strike and psychological strain. Students facing increased disruptions because of the potential strike had decreased perceived control over their own tasks and over the university policies, and they experienced higher strain. Having more information about the dispute was associated with increased perceived task and policy control but was unassociated with strain. Both task and policy control moderated the relationship between disruptions and strain.