December 2022 – Immersify Education

December 22, 2022

Dentistry Teaching Methods 2022: Time to act! How training impacts retention

Christine Smethurst

Written by Christine Smethurst, BDM at Immersify Education

In the UK, there is general concern about the recruitment and retention of dental professionals. The NHS dental practices are struggling to fill core clinical vacancies, which leaves an unacceptable number of patients unable to access routine NHS dental services*. 

An area of dental education that I am very passionate about is how training processes – or sometimes lack-off – impact staff and trainee retention.

This blog post is going to develop my previous two posts on the topic ‘Dentistry Teaching Methods 2022’, with a focus on the barriers in which dental corporates have when it comes to the teaching of their trainees.

How can you overcome the barriers to trainee retention?

Through providing clear support and professional development plans to prospective trainees, this will help with acquisition as well as alleviate the workload for your current staff; and in-turn, reduce your staff turnover.

But let’s go into this in more detail below.

Limited Resources

The number of practising dentists in the UK has been declining over the years, from 46,000 in 2015 to 41,300 dental practitioners in 2020. This decline has led to a considerable burden on UK dentists, with the average number of NHS dentists available for 10,000 people being 5.3*. The current shortage of the dental workforce in the UK has been related to factors such as Brexit and COVID19 – which has lead to an increasing number of dentists leaving the profession.

But what does this mean for dental education? 🤔

Not as many dental practitioners means there are less professionals to teach trainees. This limited resource in person-to-person training makes it harder to validate and monitor performance of trainees to ensure patient safety.

Some things you can do:

It is vital to look for different ways to provide the same quality of teaching and keep track of what your trainees are doing. A way that you can do this, is through education platforms. Education platforms are a great way to continue your trainees course delivery whilst overcoming the limited time your staff have to provide this development.

The Immersify Platform for example, is an educational resource that is available 24/7 so trainees can pick up their learning when it suits them and their schedule. This reduces the workload for your staff as they can give trainees a dentistry topic based off a recent procedure they supported in. The Immersify Platform also uses assessment tools such as multiple-choice questions to reinforce key concepts; you can go through these quizzes with your trainees to test their knowledge.

Dental Foundation Training & COVID19

Formerly known as Dental Vocational Training. The purpose of this training is to “enhance clinical administrative competence and promote high standards through relevant postgraduate training to meet the needs of general dental practice in the NHS”*. This type of training is essential in providing support to newly qualified professionals and fundamental to their progression in the early stages of their career.

What does this mean for dental education? 💡

The elephant in the room, COVID19. Covid happening meant that trainees were getting less clinical experience and exposure to real-time decision making. Dr Silvi Domnori, vice president of public relations at the International Association of Dental Students (IADS) said that a lack of hands-on clinical experience has left many young dental professionals worrying that they will not receive the optimal amount of clinical practice *.

Some things you can do:

Now that we have seen first-hand how a global pandemic can bring any form of practical, in-person training to a standstill, the main way you can minimise this impact is ensuring that you have contingency plans in place.

Education platforms are covid proof. Take for example the Immersify Platform, individuals being able to access this content through a hand-held device or the web, means trainees can continue their clinical development despite barriers to in-person training. Through scenario-based learning and simulated clinical settings, trainees can boost their self-esteem and confidence through exposure to ‘real-life’ experiences.

Not only this benefit, but the range of dentistry content available on the platform covers more advanced clinical procedures, such as Root-Canal Treatments, Implantology & Oral Surgery, providing your trainees with comprehensive coverage of relevant dental topics.

📍 Sneak peek of what is coming to the Immersify Platform!

A long-term goal for the Immersify Platform is to offer CPD points to young professionals. We haven’t fully scoped out how this will look yet but, we want to continuously evolve the platform and provide additional elements that are sought-after by our community.

Supporting Overseas Students

As Immersify Education is based in Manchester, how is it that UK based corporates can attract international trainees?

By providing the relevant training and development that enables individuals to pass the exams that allow them to continue practicing dentistry in the UK. The National Examining Board for Dental Nurses, say that the Overseas Registration Exam (ORE) has been designed so that a candidate shows their competence, knowledge, and familiarity in the different aspects of dentistry*.

What does this mean for dental education in the UK? 🤔

For international dental professionals coming to the UK, they need to understand the dental terminology and processes in line with UK standards. Therefore, the training provided needs to be conducted in such a way to meet these standards.

Some things you can do:

Although some countries follow UK dental curriculums, it is important to provide a solution for trainees if they have not undergone training in line with UK standards.

This is where the Immersify Platform can help.

All the dentistry resources within the platform are created and curated by industry experts, and the fact that you can access each topic individually means that even if you don’t follow a specific curriculum, you have the flexibility to choose what needs to be learned and in which order. We also recently formed a content licensing partnership with Oxford University Press; providing even more academically correct content too. This level of quality assurance means that our platform is a reliable source of information in which dental professionals can trust to use for their development.

📍 Sneak peek of what is coming to the Immersify Platform!

Soon, our content is going to encompass dental concepts that are different in certain locations (I.e. periodontal examination scores) – giving an even more reliable and trustworthy educational resource for dental professionals across the globe.

Conclusion

Its all connected. Conceptual image representing modern cloud computing

Going back to the title of this post, how does training impact retention in dentistry?

All young professionals, students even, consider the various factors that demonstrate career progression within any profession, from manufacturing to catering and this is the same case for the dental industry. In fact, ensuring that there are viable options for career progression for dentists and dental care professionals is needed to optimise a sustainable workforce*.

Dental corporates can overcome the barriers in recruitment and retention within the dental industry by providing a solution. It is important to ensure that the solution delivers the same quality education as face-to-face training provides. And what are your contingency plans if a global pandemic was to happen again?

This is where education platforms come in. This solution enables trainees to continue their professional development, supports corporates in allocating human resource effectively and helps continue the quality workforce within the dental industry.

From this blog post, you are now equipped with the solution to act.

If you would like more information on the Immersify Platform, please book some time in my Calendly, and I would be able to discuss any questions you may have and how the platform can help reduce workload for your staff, offer 1:1 support for your trainees and overcome the barriers you may be facing.

References

https://bmchealthservres.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12913-020-4980-6  

https://coronavirus.dental-tribune.com/news/dental-students-worried-about-lacking-clinical-skills/  

https://www.dental-tutors.com/overseas-dental-care-professionals/  

https://www.rcseng.ac.uk/dental-faculties/fds/nacpde/overseas-qualified-dentists/uk-employment/dental-foundation-training/

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41415-020-1204-8  

December 8, 2022

How can an education platform help me as a qualified professional?

Initial thoughts on education platforms

Let’s refer to the title of this post quickly, this is a question we often get asked at Immersify.

Education platforms are usually seen as a resource that is more targeted towards students undergoing a degree, a college course or as a pre-enrolment tool to start learning key topics. But educational platforms, are also beneficial for young and/or qualified professionals 💯

Whether you are needing a study resource for CPD courses, want to strengthen your skills in a certain area or need more exposure to real-life encounters, educational platforms can help you achieve this.

Our education platform Immersify, incorporates key learning methods and features that equip individuals with the transferrable skills in which they can apply throughout their professional career.

So, how is Immersify relevant to you? 💡

Here’s how:

Scenario-based learning

✍️ Why is scenario-based learning beneficial to you?

This learning method is essential in understanding how you would act in a real-life situation and helps the development of key problem-solving skills and your ability to make real-time decisions*.

But more specifically, visual scenario-based learning, this learning method is more engaging than the traditional text-focused forms of scenario-based learning. This is because visual scenarios use imagery, such as animations and infographics, to make the learning experience more interactive and fun.

✍️ Why is visual scenario-based learning better?

Professionals do not have the time to read a 60-page document on a case, that’s why visual scenarios are being increasingly incorporated within teaching; as they are more of an efficient use of time. It’s also a lot easier to assess individuals and provide feedback as they have been able to complete the exercise a lot quicker than what the traditional method would take.

Where does Immersify come in? 🤔

Our platform provides many scenario-based learning experiences.

For example, let’s say you are a young dentistry professional who wants to better understand the different types of Local Anaesthetic.

Within our Local Anaesthetic experience, or what we call LA, learners are presented with a patient’s clinical history, which they then must choose the type of anaesthetic, injection site and angle for this patient. During this process, learners see an animation of how the anaesthetic they have chosen affects the patient’s nerves. Once they have completed this process, two things happen, they either receive reasons as to why their choice was the correct one or, they are provided with a better option regarding that patient.

Simulated clinical settings

🩺 Why do simulated clinical settings benefit your learning?

For our academic areas in healthcare, these simulations enable you to strengthen your clinical and decision-making skills in relation to events that you will face in your daily work.

This protected environment allows you to boost your self-esteem and confidence within this element of your profession*. Exposure to this environment allows you to learn and fail within a safe environment knowing that your ‘patient’ isn’t under any harm whilst you complete a procedure.

How does Immersify do this? 🤔

To keep in theme with our dentistry example earlier, our new dental content includes Oral Surgery, specifically Extractions, where we have an interactive animation that talks you through the process.

Starting off in a simulated clinical setting, this animation mentions where to sit depending on whether you are undergoing an upper or lower extraction. This animation then goes into how it’s important to understand the risks and implications that may arise during a tooth extraction, such as breaking a tooth, to then discussing the different instruments for extractions and when best to use them; giving learners the full picture as to what happens during this procedure.

Industry-led and academically correct content

📚 Why are credible sources important for your learning?

Now that you are a qualified professional, or are about to qualify, it’s important that the sources you use throughout your learning are teaching you the relevant, updated and industry-specific processes.

Whether you are wanting to refresh your knowledge on a certain topic or are completing a CPD course to earn additional qualifications, you need to trust the sources that you are learning from.

What about the content within Immersify? 🤔

We collaborate with industry professionals to create and develop the content within Immersify. Once this content has been created by our team, we then have the content quality assured by a range of industry experts, student focus groups and quality assurance teams.

Not only is our content industry-led but we also have a content licensing partnership with Oxford University Press; as you can see, we make sure our resources are academically correct too.

Covering each basis provides you with the most reliable and credible resources to learn from, this makes our platform’s content relevant to industry standards whilst also bringing you sought-after topics.

Note: some processes may be specific to UK guidelines and may differ slightly to what you are taught within your country.

What other elements to look out for in an educational platform

Most education platforms have specific elements, pillars or USPs that make them differ from the competition*. It is essential that you look at the other aspects on offer and how these features relate back to your learning in order to make your decision.

Immersify has many different features and elements within the platform that supports you throughout your learning journey.

But, to pinpoint down our most relevant features for your learning and professional growth, it would have to be the ability to track your progress and identify areas for improvement; enabling you to tailor your learning journey. As well as our accessibility element, that allows you to pick up your learning when it is convenient for you.

Progress Graphs 📈

Once you complete a lesson you will be presented with a quiz. After completing this quiz, your score will be placed on a graph. Each time that you go in, complete this lesson and quiz, your most recent score will be placed on this graph.

Same with the experiences; every time you play these interactive games, you will get a score, which you can improve with each attempt. This instant feedback allows you to see how well you performed on that module and whether you need to do more work on this area.

Challenge Feature 🏅

Complete activities and earn crowns based off the score that you get on an activity. The more crowns you receive, indicates how well you know that topic. If you don’t get a score you are happy with, this highlights to you that you may need to freshen up on that topic or module.

We have this guide that goes into more detail as to how the Challenge Feature works.

For instance, say you complete an activity within the Challenge Feature on Periodontology, and you get 45/60, you may think to yourself that this is an area that you should be more competent in so then you go off any undergo further study into this area.

Accessibility ⏰

Through your hand-held device, you can access our platform’s content on the way to work, on a work break or in the comfort of your own home; enabling you to shape your learning around your busy schedule.

If you only have a laptop or desktop, you can access our content through Immersify Web. As long as you have a strong enough connection on WiFi or Hotspot, you can access the content the same way as your hand-held device.

Final thoughts on education platforms

Education platforms help professionals at whichever stage they are at within their learning journey.

The good thing about education platforms, like Immersify, is that they give you confidence in your work life and enable you to continue your development in your own time and not feel pressurised to do so.

When choosing a relevant educational platform, not only is the transferability of your learning to real-life experiences important, but so are the other platform features that are on offer and how reliable a platform’s content is; these elements add up in providing a high-quality and relevant education platform.

Become the best professional you want to be, download Immersify for free:

📲 Apple App Store

📲 Google Play Store

Don’t have a hand-held device? Access our content through Immersify Web.

go to Immersify web

References

https://elearningindustry.com/reasons-learners-prefer-scenario-based-learning-technique

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8116070/

https://www.theweek.in/news/sci-tech/Consider-these-points-before-subscribing-edtech-platform.html