Continuing education: attitudes, interests, and experiences of practicing dentists

This study was designed to examine the determinants of interest in formal continuing education courses of two different types, clinical and practice oriented. Major findings were (1) practice-oriented and clinically oriented courses differed in attractiveness among different segments of the dental profession, (2) interest in courses of a clinical nature was higher and more widespread throughout the proffession than was interest in management courses, and (3) half of the dentists supported mandatory continuing education for renewal of licenses, but 56% opposed a requirement that examinations in those courses be successfully completed. Interest in practice-related courses was related to age, income, use of allied health personnel, journal reading, and participation in study clubs. Clinically related courses were slightly more attractive to the sample than were practice-oriented courses, but current offerings of this type are less attractive to specialists than to general practitioners. Clinical courses generally appeal to the more active segments of the profession, and interest is associated with journal reading, participation in study clubs, and attendance at dental meetings. The appeal of clinical titles was more universal than that of management titles. Few background and practice characteristics were correlated with desire to keep up with the field, and those correlations that existed were smaller than those relating these variables to interest in practice; the only exception was specialization, as was noted above. Support for mandatory continuing education without examination as a requirement for relicensure was substantial. Further, no significant cleavages on this issue could be associated with any of the background or practice characteristics which were studied, a finding that indicate the existence of broad-based consensus in the sample.