Dental Interns Perceptions on Clinical Supervision

Running head: MEDICINE AND HEALTH
Dental interns perceptions on clinical supervision
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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MEDICINE AND HEALTH
Introduction
Inters who are the aspiring doctors are the main pillars of workforce in healthcare
(Okoronkwo et al. 2013). According to the International Council of Nurses (ICN), there 11
million healthcareprofessionals around the world among whom a significant portion
constitutes doctors and the nurses. Okoronkwo et al. (2013) highlighted that effective clinical
teaching is an effective tool for the medical interns. The same concept also holds significance
for the dental interns. Kilminster and Jolly (2000) highlighted that effective clinical
supervision and its consecutive clinical teaching helps the medical and the dental interns to
get prepared for their professional life. Moreover, the clinical experience of the medical
interns helps them to participate with any healthcare team and seeking solutions for real life
problems with active thinking skills and thus helping to become a competent medical
practitioner. The same concept holds significance in the domain of dental and the medical
interns and dental physician interns. According to Watt, Williams and Sheiham (2014), the
dental professionals hold prominent significance in healthcare. It is the duty of the dental
healthcare team to promote health equity under a large section of their service users. Thus, it
can be said that clinical supervision is also an important pillar in the training process of the
dental interns. However, apart from highlighting the importance of the clinical supervision
from the training perspective, the thought process of the mind-set of the dental interns
undertaking the clinical supervision training is also crucial. The following review of literature
will mainly aim of highlight the importance of clinical supervision in dental internship from
the perspective of the dental interns. In doing so, the review will also throw light on the
definition of clinical supervision, its importance in training dental interns for their
professional life. The review will also attempt to discuss the theoretical underpinning of
clinical supervision through cognitive, apprenticeship, and social learning theory.

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Importance of clinical supervision in dental and the medical internship
Definition of clinical supervision
Before discussion about the importance of clinical supervision in the field of medical
science and dentistry, it is necessary to explore the definition of this term. Generally, the
definition of supervision mainly emphasizes on the promotion of the professional
development for ensuring the safety of the patient (Bifarin and Stonehouse 2017). A clinical
supervision can be defined as the activity that helps to bring practitioners and the supervisors
to reflect upon the practice. It can also be defined as an exchange between the practicing
professionals for enabling the development of the professional skills.This emphasis differs
with the various professional ethos. In general supervision has three functions- supportive
educational, managerial and administrative. However, the definition of clinical scrutiny for
medicine involves monitoring, proper guidance and feedback for the personal and the
professional development in terms of doctor's care of the patients. This would also involve
the ability to evaluate the strength and weaknesses of a doctor in a particular clinical situation
for maximizing the safety of the patient (Bifarin and Stonehouse 2017).
Importance of clinical supervision in medical and dental internship
The concept of the clinical supervision has been well established for decades in a
number of different disciplines across the health care professionals including medicine and
dental health. In the current scenario of increasing financial burden, that affects the quality of
care and not the productivity of the staffs. Clinical supervision is the essence of good care
and without this; the clinicians cannot develop their skills knowledge and abilities. According
toLauner and Hogarth (2011) supervision aids accountability that is necessary for an effective
practice and it ensures a delivery of quality care. Clinical supervision in dentistry requires an
active engagement as well and a reciprocated relationship between the dental students and the
supervisee. High quality of clinical supervision has attributed to job satisfaction, increased

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depth of knowledge among the dental and medical professionals, reduced burnout and
emotional stress and increased self-awareness. It also allows reflective practice, gives support
and the encouragement to the interns to gain self-confidence and self-awareness.
Dental health care professionals are expected to deliver a wide range of dental care
contributing to the quality of the patients’ day to day life, for which they are trained clinically
at the time of the undergraduate course. An intern studying dentistry often have to work
closely with the senior dentists provide assistance to them throughout the process. Assisting a
senior dentist, generally involves a wide range of procedures form the preparation of the
various materials, instruments and the equipment required for cleaning or sterilising (Prasad
et al. 2013). Other duties might involve documentation of the records of the patient, taking
care of the oral hygiene, processing of the radiographs and the stock control (Subramanian et
al. 2013). Due to this wide range of duties a dental professional might encounter emergency
at the time of the treatment. They often might face situations where they have to deal with
patients having a potentially life threatening condition. Dental emergencies often involve
syncope, anaphylaxis, airway obstruction, asthmatic attack, chest pain, seizure and the
haemorrhage, although myocardial infarctions are quite rare (Subramanian et al. 2013). Due
to this wide array of complications, dental or the medical interns required effective
supervision. Supervision in dentistry involves training the trainees to take responsibilities for
the management of patient. The clinical supervision supports the dentistry students to
potentiate the development of their competencies in dentistry. Clinical supervision in health
care also helps in minimizing the medical errors such as medication errors or wrong treatment
(Carver et al. 2014). Kilminster and Jolly(2000) have stated that the clinical supervision
supports the students to develop their knowledge and competence for their own dentistry
practice and enhance the safety and the protection of the clients in complex clinical
situations. It has to be remembered that a valuable supervision ischaracterized by the joint