Abstract
Aims To gather the views of North Wales dentists on the current communication methods of the North Wales Local Dental Committee (LDC) (NWLDC) and how this could be optimised to improve engagement from members.
Design Descriptive cross-sectional survey.
Setting Online electronic questionnaire.
Materials and methods Survey circulated via the NWLDC's current communication channels, local professional groups, the local health board and Health Education and Improvement Wales' Maxcourse distribution list.
Results A total of 167 unique responses were received from across North Wales. In total, 79.1% were from dentists, of which most were working in the general dental services (63.6%) on a mixed practice basis (61.9%). Furthermore, 69.5% of respondents felt they received too little information from the LDC, 71.3% never attended LDC meetings and only 15.6% attended more than one meeting a year. The pandemic has had no impact for 82.6% in increasing their engagement with the LDC.
Conclusions Communication between the LDC and the dental community within an area is crucial. This survey has shown that, despite the best of intentions, the current communication methods utilised by the NWLDC are not effective at maximising the inclusiveness and participation with the LDC. The survey revealed that there is a lack of clarity over the LDC's role and who is 'allowed' to attend LDC meetings. It showed that although the dental practitioners practising within North Wales want to receive information and updates from the NWLDC, the communication methods which are currently being used are not reaching the majority of them.
Key points
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Effective communication between an LDC and the dental community within a region is crucial in ensuring effective and sustainable delivery of clinical dental services.
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The current LDC methods of information dissemination are only reaching a minority of dentists within North Wales.
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Dentists within North Wales are unclear as to the roles of the LDC and if they are 'allowed' to be involved with the LDC.
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References
Cook C, Heath F, Thompson R L. A Meta-Analysis of Response Rates in Web- or Internet-Based Surveys. Educ Psychol Measure 2000; 60: 821-836.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Jeremy Williams, Chairperson, along with the other members of the North Wales Local Dental Committee, for their insight in recognising the potential communication issues which were present; along with their vision in accepting the working party recommendations which will hopefully result in improved collaboration between the LDC and its members within North Wales.
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Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Benjamin R. K. Lewis: working group member, survey design and construction, survey circulation, results analysis and article write-up. Daniel C. Naylor: working group member chair, survey design and tester, survey circulation and contribution to article write-up. Ravi Boojawon: working group member, survey design and tester, survey circulation and contribution to article write-up. Callum I. Smith: working group member, survey design and tester, survey circulation and contribution to article write-up. Daniel M. Prior: working group member, survey design and tester and survey circulation.
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Ethics declarations
The authors declare no conflicts of interest.
This study was devised to evaluate the current communication strategies of the North Wales Local Dental Committee with the individuals who were invited to complete the survey being the dental professionals served by the LDC. As such, the study did not require ethical approval as it was a service evaluation and not considered research as per the Medical Research Council/NHS Health Research Authority. Consent to participate was implied by individuals proceeding to complete the survey.
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Lewis, B., Naylor, D., Boojawon, R. et al. Engagement with the North Wales Local Dental Committee - part 1: current participation and opinions of its communication methods. Br Dent J (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-022-4927-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-022-4927-x
