Promoting professionalism

Developing our principles of professionalism 

We are currently working with dental professionals and patients to come to a shared understanding of what professionalism means in dentistry today. This work is being done to underpin the development of new principles of professionalism for UK dentistry. 

Research has also been undertaken to support the work, Professionalism: a mixed-methods research study, was commissioned by the GDC to provide a comprehensive study of professionalism in healthcare and dentistry.

We have also worked with Community Research to conduct facilitated online sessions with dental professionals and patients to better understand the reasons why views on professionalism in some areas diverge. This work has included sharing stories of professionalism in dentistry and asking you to share with us your examples of professionalism - take a look at the details and get involved.

You can find out more about this work on our research pages and you can watch our recorded online session with the researchers from ADEE where we explored the findings in more detail.

The results were also the subject of a panel discussion at our Moving Upstream Conference 2020. The expert panel, led by Professor Jonathan Cowpe, ADEE, discussed key points from the research including cultural and generational differences, and the challenges posed by social media.  

Video: We asked delegates at our conference to also share their thoughts on what professionalism means to them - have a listen to what they told us.

The results of this work are now being used to inform the development of the principles of professionalism, and our review of the Standards for the dental team and its supporting guidance.