What is preventing dentists from providing person-centred care?
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Abstract
Most healthcare professions have shifted the way they teach clinical approaches from a biomedical to a person-centred perspective. Yet, dentistry remains strongly anchored in a biomedical world.
The objective of this project was to understand the barriers practicing dentists face to provide what we consider person-centred care. We conducted a qualitative descriptive study that comprised semi-structured interviews with dentists in private practice in the Greater Montreal area.
After the analysis, we identified six barriers:
• Fear of interpersonal conflict: participants thought that engaging in genuine conversations with patients would lead to situations of disagreement and even conflicts.
• Fear of litigation: dentists considered that the legal and licensing infrastructure would judge the treatment they provide through a strict biomedical framework.
• Fear of loss of money: participants thought that providing person-centred care was more time consuming and thus financially penalizing.
• Pleasure to excel technically: some dentists did not consider offering interventions that provided less procedural pleasure than technical ones.
• Narrow interpretation of health: participants considered the biomedical dimension as the only important dimension.
• Lack of information: participants knew nothing or very little about person or patient-centred care. They seemed willing to integrate it into their practice had they had known more about it.
These findings should help academic institutions to design their programs on person-centred care and respond to the fears expressed by professionals.
Also, legal infrastructures must recognize the paradigm shift from the biomedical to the person-centred.
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