Patient centred health provision in dental settings – an idea whose time has come?
1st Supervisor: Dr Koula Asimakopoulou
2nd Supervisor: Dr Sasha Scambler
Description of project
Patient-centred care, patient empowerment and the giving of choice to patients over decisions to do with their health have been popular ideas in medical settings. The extent to which such ideas have transferred into dentistry however remains unknown. This PhD seeks to explore the presence of patient centred care in dental settings from the perspectives of dentists and patients.
Study One: Systematic review of literature on the concepts of patient centredness, patient empowerment and patient choice in medical and dental settings. Peer reviewed papers published in the last 10 years and containing the following key words will be reviewed. The research question asked in this study is “How apt are the concepts of patient centredness, patient choice and patient empowerment in dental care”?
Study Two: Qualitative interview based study exploring the concept of patient centred care from the viewpoint of dentists. What is patient centred care? Do dentists practice patient centred care? And if so, how?
Study Three: Qualitative interview based study exploring patients’ experiences of patient centredness within dentistry. What do they understand by the term patient centred? How much power do they feel that they have in their interactions with dentists? And do they want patient centred care?
Duration of project: 3 years
Contact for further information:
Dr Koula Asimakopoulou
Email: koula.asimakopoulou@kcl.ac.uk
Research Topic: Social & Behavioural Science
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