An interdisciplinary team approach to development of health professions education.

In this article, the authors provide a practical approach to developing interdisciplinary educational programs for health professions students from different colleges. A three-stage model that enables interdisciplinary teams of faculty members to collaborate during planning and implementing programs is described. These three stages are identifying interdependence, exploring roles and sources of influence, and developing work methods. Common problems occurring during each stage and suggested solution alternatives are cited. The value of this model is the translation of philosophical perspectives into workable methods.

Body image, self-concept, and the orthodontic patient.

Four major criterion groups--orthodontic retention patients, prospective orthodontic patients, a population sample, and mothers of prospective patients--were established. Appropriate relationships between groups and subgroups were studied with regard to body-image and self-concept satisfaction, to body-image and self-concept importance, and other factors. The findings include the following: 1. There was no significant difference in body-image and self-concept satisfaction of importance between prospective orthodontic patients and the population sample. 2. There was no significant difference in body-image and self-concept satisfaction or importance between prospective orthodontic patients and orthodontic patients in retention. 3. There was a significant difference between prospective orthodontic patients' self-concept importance and their mother's perception of self-concept importance. There teen-agers placed more emphasis on their self-concept than did their mothers. 4. There was no significant difference between any of the groups in body-image and self-concept satisfaction or importance with change in age (11 to 16 years). 5. Girls scored significantly lower in both body-image and self-concept satisfaction than did the boys at these ages (11 to 16 years). 6. Patients with Class III malocclusion scored significantly lower than the other malocclusion groups in all categories of body-image and self-concept satisfaction and importance.

Motives to enter the dental profession: students, practitioners, faculty.

1. The dental student, the private practitioner, and the dental educator have similar self-motives related to an educational process which includes learning to develop to full potential and having the freedom to carry out one's ideas. 2. The motives perceived by dental students as important for the private practitioner are not the same as those the private practitioner perceives for himself. The student perceives good salary and a community reputation, while the practitioner perceives a continual educational process with freedom to carry out his ideas as the primary motive for entering the profession. The student and the practitioner are aligned on most of their self-motives. 3. The motives of the dental educator parallel those of the practitioner more than they parallel those of the student.

Evaluation by objectives: A systematic approach to the evaluation of educational programs and activities in dental education.

In response to the need for more effective utilization of resources, many institutions of higher learning are beginning to use corporate management methods. These methods, MBO being the most familiar example, center on the common comprehension at all levels of the goals of the corporation. However, institutions of higher learning uniformly lack a cohesiveness of purpose that extends from the level of president to that of teaching faculty. It is a mistake to assume that institutional educational goals are understood and supported by appropriate educational objectives at the department and program level. The evaluation-by-objective format is a concise graphical way to identify areas of support and confusion. It can be applied at each level of the institution and transmitted upward so that personnel at each administrative level can see the way in which its goals and objectives are perceived at lower levels. The proposed format facilitates grouping of educational objectives into programs, providing a framework for the estimation of effort and of needed resources. Since perceptions of effort and required resources will differ depending upon perspective, important issues will be identified, a most significant benefit of the system. The format leads to the formulation of an action plan, which should be reviewed periodically. The first step toward scientific management in institutions of higher learning must be a clear understanding of institutional and subunit goals, along with a set of education objectives that will accomplish these goals. The evaluation-by-objective format directs itself to exactly that concern.

Dentistry, medicine, pharmacy: treatment interests, ability and socioeconomic index of three stable career groups.

Career development literature indicates that many who enter a specific health profession may do so after actively considering one of the other health professions. From a field of 36 variables representing abilities, interests, temperanment, and socioeconomic index, 16 significant variables were found that best differentiate between and among physicians, dentists, and pharmacists. These 16 served as reliable discriminators for predictive classification.