External review of the clinical study environment begins in January 2025
Beginning in January 2025, an external review of the clinical study environment at the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health will begin. The review has been initiated by the department management team following media reports in the fall of 2024 regarding a harsh tone in the clinic.
The review consists of two parts:
- an anonymous survey for all students and staff at the department who have connection to clinical teaching
- qualitative group interviews with students and staff.
To ensure that the process and content of the review is clear and accessible to everyone, an exact plan for the review can be found at the bottom of this article.
Falck Healthcare is handling all parts of the review
Falck Healthcare will be responsible for the external review of the clinical study environment at the department. Falck Healthcare has the professional expertise and experience from similar educational environments to conduct a review like this one, which will involve almost 1,000 participants.
Falck Healthcare will be responsible for:
- the design of the review, including preparation of a survey and selecting the groups of staff and students who will be invited to participate in the qualitative interviews.
- carrying out both the quantitative (survey) and qualitative (group interviews) parts of the review.
- handling and analysing all data.
- preparing a report with recommendations.
Participation in the survey is anonymous, and the conversations in the qualitative interviews will not be transcribed. Falck Healthcare will summarise the overall themes so none of what is said in the interviews can be traced back to the participants.
Employees with clinical teaching responsibilities: Participation is important
Regardless of whether you as an employee have experienced a harsh tone or offensive behaviour during clinical teaching, it is important that you participate in the review. The aim of the review is to map the experiences and causes of dissatisfaction among students and staff, including, for example, the perception of a harsh tone of communication in connection with clinical teaching.
As the results of the external review will guide the next steps, it is crucial that everyone answers the survey based on their own experience of the study and teaching environment. This will help ensure that we get an accurate picture of well-being in the clinical teaching environment.
The next step
In January, employees with connection to clinical teaching and all students at the department will receive an email from Falck Healthcare with a link to the anonymous survey. The survey will take 5-10 minutes to complete.
Some of the employees will also be invited to participate in the qualitative group interviews by virtue of their positions. The interviews will mainly be held in February once the exam period has ended and everyone has returned to the department for the spring semester.
Once the review process has been completed, employees will be informed of the results. The department's formal staff and student forums will be involved in the follow-up work related to initiatives and changes based on the results of the review.
Process plan for review of the clinical study environment
When | What | Who |
Weeks 2, 3 and 4 in January | Anonymous survey | Students and staff with connection to clinical teaching at the Department of Dentistry and Oral Health |
January | Group interview | Union representatives and occupational health and safety representatives |
February | Group interview | Directors of studies, chairs of the boards of studies and student representatives from both boards of studies |
February | Group interview | Semester forum for odontology students as well as dental hygienist and clinical dental technician students |
February | Group interview, outside the department | Students who were on the sixth semester of the dentistry programme in the spring of 2024 will have the opportunity to expand on the experiences and episodes that were reported by the media |
February | Group interview | Students from all programmes who want to contribute to mapping the review: Max. 35 participants |
February | Group interview | Clinical teachers from all programmes, areas, weekdays and subject groups. |
February | Group interview | Odontological student association: 8-12 representatives
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Contact
Department Head Siri Beier Jensen
Aarhus University, Department of Dentistry and Oral Health
Telephone: 93 50 85 25
Email: siri@dent.au.dk