The development and piloting of a leadership questionnaire for general dental practitioners: preliminary results from the North West of England and Tokyo

Leadership and Managerial Skills in Dentistry: Characteristics and Challenges Based on a Preliminary Case Study

Dentistry is changing rapidly in a dynamic and challenging mode and is incorporating digital technology, communication, and managerial skills for profitable enterprises. On the new dental horizon, the profession requires engaging and inspiring role models and leaders. Ιdentifying and developing human soft skills can improve quality issues and guarantee a sustainable dental business. The concept of leadership is a very complex and multidimensional phenomenon as observed from the current literature. In different commercial environments, there has been a huge discussion on the specific characteristics of an effective leader. In dentistry, the subject needs further investigation. This article aims to bring up the importance of dental leadership and highlights the need of identifying dental leaders committed to excellency. It also challenges the need for educational shift on dental leadership management. Finally, it aims to support and develop educational transformations based on positive preliminary data observed by incorporating a new, relevant subject in the dental curriculum.

Leadership in Dental Practice: a Three Stage Systematic Review and Narrative Synthesis

Objectives

To review leadership for dentists in patient facing, primary care dental practice.

Methods

A three stage systematic review with narrative synthesis included stage 1: a scoping overview of management and leadership policy context; stage 2: systematic review of review of leadership in healthcare; and stage 3: systematic focused review of leadership in patient-facing dental practice.

Results

The healthcare literature mirrors the generic literature in relation to the temporal evolution of leadership theories. Policy papers influence healthcare literature, though these are generally written by independent bodies, link solely to medical publications, and are often commissioned from the grand strategic level thereby grounding them in a politicised system. The healthcare leadership literature offers few studies at the operational (patient care) level of leadership, with none of these focused explicitly on dentistry and dental practice.

Numerous aims, definitions, models, conceptualisations, and links to theories of leadership are reported. The stage 1 literature demonstrates more contemporaneous ideas of leadership, while the dental practice literature is too often grounded in outdated concepts and theories.

Conclusions

The overarching trend is from leaders to leadership; with no unified definition, model, theory, concept nor aim recognised. The fundamental importance of specific context and the reaction of others to leadership is reinforced. Leadership theories aligned to healthcare include Engaging, Authentic, Collective and the Transformational-Transactional continuum.

Leadership is a dynamic, socially constructed process, only occurring in a group setting. Consisting of multiple moderating variables that demonstrate reciprocal influence on one another, these influences are neither equal nor stable. (246 words)

Clinical significance

Leadership is embedded in regulatory guidance and standards relating to general dental practice. It is therefore crucial to have an evidenced based understanding of what leadership means in this context, and what further work is necessary to support clinicians in the leadership domain.

Leadership in dentistry: findings from new tool to measure clinical leadership

Background

In England, the recent reorganization of the National Health Service has led to the development of local dental networks and an emerging narrative on the importance of clinical leadership in dentistry. Analogous to clinical commissioning groups, local dental networks ensure general dental practitioners (GDPs) influence the delivery of local services. However, little is known about what GDPs think clinical leadership is and whether the construct has meaning. The aim of this study was to explore the structure of a pilot questionnaire to determine the qualities that GDPs deem are important and to use a data reduction methodology to produce a tool to measure clinical leadership.

Methods

A 61-item questionnaire was distributed to GDPs across the North West of England. GDPs were asked to rate the level of importance of each item using a 7-point Likert scale. Principal component analysis and direct oblimin rotation was used to examine for factor loadings within the questionnaire. Internal validity was tested by Cronbach’s alpha.

Results

Two principle factors emerged: “how to lead” and “how not to lead”. Individually, the item “I think it is important to have integrity” was rated as the most important.

Conclusion

The study developed a refined questionnaire that captures the important qualities of clinical leadership in dentistry. This is the first questionnaire that has been developed to capture important leadership attributes for GDPs.