key: cord-0076589-ae0dbw76
authors: Westgarth, David
title: Why student problems matter to the entire profession
date: 2022-04-04
journal: BDJ In Pract
DOI: 10.1038/s41404-022-1097-0
sha: 32bb45470a7abaf46300d059ff99e94c0ce2ece7
doc_id: 76589
cord_uid: ae0dbw76

nan

C onducted in October and November 2021, the report 1 revealed high proportions of students experienced wellbeing challenges, most notably stress or burnout (90%) and performance anxiety (77%), highlighting the close link between academic demands and wellbeing. However, only 33% of students had accessed some support for their wellbeing.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, given the continuing uncertainty caused by the pandemic, around half of students were impacted to some degree by severe wellbeing issues such as depression (55%) and bereavement (50%), with around a fifth impacted 'a lot' by each of these.

Three in four (74%) students stated that financial issues impacted them to some degree during their studies. The main factors that contributed to financial issues were mental health (61%), family circumstances (59%), final year funding changes (46%) and business closures linked to COVID-19 (44%). Students also felt COVID-19 had increased their need for financial support (55%) and, in particular, wellbeing support (74%) with the transition to online classes and suspension of wider university activities being major contributing factors. This led to one in four (24%) students seeking to access some financial support, most often from their university (65%) or family or friends (31%). Yet, 51% of students stated they had not accessed financial support despite facing financial issues, with 22% not needing any financial support. Running parallel to this, 56% of dental students said they had paid employment alongside their studies to pay for their living costs, with most of these (84%) working less than 16 hours a week.

You may be reading this and wondering 'how does this affect me?' , which is a fair question. And yet, the concerns of dental students should concern the entire profession.

When commenting on these figures, Dr Ros Keeton, chair of the BDA BF, said: 'This report reinforces the pressure and wellbeing issues that we have in not just dental students, but in the profession as a whole. It reinforces our understanding of how difficult the scenarios are that people are facing and how anxiety-making they are. We, in the UK, need to say, 'that's not a good place for a profession to be in' , and we need to look at ways that we both train and support younger dentists in particular through that.

'I hope that the profession collectively responds to the survey. Because I think that's where the answer is -it's in the collective response -it's not about passing the buck. ' Nearly 1000 dentists left the NHS in the last year, a trend now set to go into overdrive. Recent BDA surveys show over 40% of dentists indicate they are likely to change career or seek early retirement in the next 12 months given the current pressures on the service. Two thirds (66%) plan to reduce their NHS commitment, with more than a third (34%) stating they plan to go fully private in the next year, and less than half (48%) are confident their practice will continue to provide any NHS services from April 2022.

It's a simple law of numbers. More leavers and fewer joining is bad news for a profession already thinly spread. You only need take a peek at the BDA's list of press releases to see what it thinks of dentistry: fears, asleep at the wheel, crisis, collateral damage -all words used to describe how it is for practitioners in the COVID-19 world we live in, and that's just one page. There is nothing in these words which would make a prospective dental student excited about the profession they intend to serve. If this many students are reporting these levels of stress before they've even qualified, that is not a good thing.

The caveat here is things can and do get easier. I was told university is supposed to be difficult to prepare you for the real world, which then makes it easier to transition to. Not entirely sure it panned out that way, but this is where the experience young, newly-qualified and experienced dentists comes in handy. Imposter syndrome is a real phenomenon in the minds of dental students, and a calming, reassuring voice can work to alleviate that over time. Signposting to good, solid financial advice will help to alleviate those pressures and set them up on a path, potentially to ownership.

As Dr Keeton said, there is a collective responsibility to ensure the next generation of dentists come into a profession they can survive and thrive in. Perhaps there is a collective responsibility to assess whether decision-makers are letting student dentists down by not providing them the best professional circumstances to come into. ◆

The financial and wellbeing needs of UK dental students. A summary report for the British Dental Association Benevolent Fund