In the continuum of professional growth from student to successful practicing dentist, the level intended by the term competency falls somewhere in the middle. It is the level dental schools strive to have students achieve by the time they graduate. It consists of performance skills supported by knowledge, critical thinking, problem-solving ability, some experience, professional values and integrity.
This level of competency is needed when dental graduates begin the independent and unsupervised practice of dentistry and become responsible for completing their professional growth.
The Dental Practice Readiness Curriculum (DPRC), abbreviated as Practice Ready (PR), provides a turnkey platform for developing many of the non-clinical skills needed by new dentists. The program interacts with students in a self-directed learning journey that builds lifelong self-learning habits and appropriate levels of competencies. Instructors may contribute additional information to the online curriculum or just monitor and guide students’ compliance with
Practice Ready.
Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) standards:
Practice Ready prepares students to achieve competency in the following CODA standards: 2-10, 2-11, 2-17, 2-18, 2-19, and 4-7/g.
2-10 Critical thinking: Graduates must be competent in the use of critical thinking and problem-solving, including their use in the comprehensive care of patients, scientific inquiry and research methodology.
The Practice Ready curriculum develops critical thinking by using the conceptual framework of strategic planning and its applications. Students are evaluated on solving dental practice operation and management cases with fact-based strategies that optimize the quality and cost efficiency of clinical care. The educational experience is designed to apply to the careers of dental practice owners, associates and employees; public health professionals; military personnel; and academic appointees.
Assignments that comply with this standard include, but are not limited to, the following PR levels and sections: Level 1, personal strategic planning; Level 2, office design based on a previously drafted mission, vision and budget for a chosen dental practice facility; and Level 3, treatment planning and scheduling as well as staff selection.
2-11 Self-assessment: Graduates must demonstrate the ability to self-assess, including the development of professional competencies and the demonstration of professional values and capacities associated with self-directed, lifelong learning.
Each competency is developed through a combination of information discovery and problem-solving exercises requiring self-learning choices and outcome assessment.
2-17: Graduates must be competent Graduates must be competent in managing a diverse patient population and have the interpersonal and communications skills to function successfully in a multicultural work environment.
This competency is supported first by conceiving a practice mission and vision. Then, the student will choose an appropriate practice location, compatible dental teams, and patient information and management strategies fitting the community being served.
Assignments addressing these standards include, but are not limited to, the following PR levels and sections: Level 3 — For the personnel policy section, students compile a practice policy manual that clarifies the rights and obligations of all members of the dental team. At Level 3, students prepare multiday schedules that meet the needs of a diverse patient population.
2-18 Practice Management: Graduates must be competent in applying legal and regulatory concepts related to the provision and/or support of oral health care services.
Practice Ready trains students to develop dental office personnel guidelines in compliance with the appropriate regulatory provisions and to address the legal aspects of dental associate agreements.
Assignments addressing this competency are found mostly, but not exclusively, at Level 3 when students are asked to develop a personnel manual that complies with the laws of the state chosen for their practice. In Level 4, the Transition to Practice section informs students about licensing and other legal issues that must addressed as they enter practice.
2-19 Practice Management: Graduates must be competent in applying the basic principles and philosophies of practice management, understanding models of oral health care delivery, and knowing how to function successfully as the leader of the oral health care team.
Students are instructed and guided throughout the curriculum in applying strategic planning to address issues and resolve cases of dental practice management and dental team leadership.
Assignments that build this competency are woven throughout the four levels of the program. The learning process for this competency empowers students to use strategic planning, whether they are going into solo practice, working as an associate doctor, or practicing dentistry in the military and academia.
4-7/g Personal Debt Management: Student services must include the following:
g. Instruction on personal debt management and financial planning.
This standard for "student services" coincides with Practice Ready’s goal of preparing students to graduate with a personal financial profile that will not hinder their postgraduate professional opportunities.
This competency is addressed with assignments requiring understanding of practical information on the best use of student debt and on drafting personal financial statements and strategies.
Beyond CODA standards:
Mentoring professionals in the health sciences is made particularly challenging by the differences in scientific inquiry when exploring natural versus social phenomena and by the dissimilar value systems for defining success in science, in society and in business. When working toward a license to practice in a health profession, clinical expertise has priority over other competencies. The uneven learning environments influence student motivation in allocating personal time and effort among several courses offered simultaneously.
The focus on biosciences and clinical training obscures a serious deficiency in the educational outcome of training dentists and other health professionals. Most graduates are unprepared to address the management, economic and social responsibilities they have suddenly acquired.
Dental students move into private practice directly after graduation. This means owning, co-owning, being an associate of or an employee of a small business producing yearly revenues ranging from $300,000 to well over $1 million. In a public health career, new dentists will be asked to address the challenge of caring for large pools of needy patients with limited budgets. In the military, productivity, efficiency and leadership are the expected complement of clinical proficiency. In current academic environments, economic survival forces the combination of research and scholarship with revenue-producing activities similar to those found in private practice.
Efficiency, cost-effectiveness, productivity, social awareness and "profit margins versus patient welfare" should be familiar concepts. Yet, they are too often absent from the clinically focused conceptual framework of health professionals who are making decisions impacting personal, patient and societal welfare. CODA standards recognize this and, beyond the statement of competencies, imply the challenging task of including them in the educational curricula.
The online Practice Ready curriculum realizes the intent of the CODA standards and assists dental faculty in guiding students to acquire and use the additional knowledge derived from engaging in the program’s virtual-practice applications. The self-learning approach is teacher-friendly to instructors whose professional background is not in private practice or in teaching business subjects. Through Practice Ready, students and instructors become partners in exploring the knowledge base of those non-clinical unfamiliar topics. Practice Ready provides up to an estimated 128 hours of comparable class time via faculty-assisted, self-directed learning that does not require extensive classroom time.
At present, DPRC/Practice Ready is the only comprehensive web-based teaching tool of dental management and economics available anywhere.
Practical Skills:
Practice Ready is not just about compliance with accreditation standards. It is the result of many years of research and testing by practicing professionals, feedback from students and alumni, and guidance from instructors and dental industry leaders. It is an effective builder of the practical skills that a professional dentist must have to succeed.
Four levels of progressive skill development:
Level 1
- Understanding and drafting personal financial statements.
- Addressing personal financial difficulties.
- Drafting, with guidance, strategies for personal professional success.
Level 2
- Developing mission and vision statements for a dental office.
- Choosing the physical layout and the equipment for a dental office.
- Understanding and using basic business finance.
- Understanding and using basic business planning.
- • Avoiding site related pain and prevent repetitive strain injuries.
Level 3
- Marketing dental services.
- Selecting a congenial dental team.
- Efficiently allocating patients and cases to operatories.
- Deciding if associateship is a right choice. Then, locating and joining the most desirable dental practice.
Level 4
- Finding locations that match dental practice preferences.
- Preparing a professional business plan good enough to be favorably reviewed by a loan officer.