A Balanced Professional in Dentistry: Perception of Supervisors

Abstract

The curriculum of the Bachelor of Dental Surgery in Faculty of Dentistry, USIM is based on the integration of naqli (revealed) and aqli (acquired) knowledge. It aspires its graduates to exhibit the values of balanced professionals in providing community oral health care by being technically competent, socially responsible, spiritually enlighted and professionally accountable. Their clinical supervisors are in an enviable position to assess them from these perspectives. The aim of this paper was to determine the supervisors’ perception on the performance of the graduates from the Faculty of Dentistry, USIM who were under their charge. It was a qualitative study on the performance of 100 graduates from the first three batches. A total of 21 supervisors spread across the country responded to an open-ended questionnaire on the qualities of USIM graduates under their supervision.  They may supervise more than one graduate. The perceptions of the supervisors were categorised into three major themes. They felt that the graduates were socially responsible in performing their functions with competence in the community oral health services They were seen to have good personal and leadership qualities. Their supervisors also perceived them to require further exposure, guidance and training as they were new to the service.  The results indicated that the Bachelor of Dental Surgery programme at USIM was able to instill the values of a balanced professional in dentistry among its graduates but these values need to be further enhanced in providing care in the community. These findings can provide the principles in curriculum development to enhanced the qualities of the graduates in the context of balanced professional.