Quality assurance of clinical undergraduate placements for dentistry, dental hygiene and dental therapy

An ADEE based community of practice (COP) will be established to support colleagues and institutions across Europe to improve and standardise the quality assurance of clinical undergraduate placements for dentistry, dental hygiene and dental therapy.  Its aims are to examine existing standards in relation to patient safety, share best practice, and foster collaboration across institutions. This initiative would bring together educators, regulators, clinical placement partners and graduate stakeholders to develop common frameworks for placement quality, delivering consistency in clinical placement provision and therefore enhancing patient safety. A strong ‘primary care’ level clinical placement strengthens workforce readiness, acknowledging the everyday tensions between supervised undergraduate practice and patient safety.  

The COP would facilitate knowledge exchange through ADEE focussed workshops, collaborative research, addressing current challenges including navigating the variability in clinical environments, adherence to regulatory and legislative requirements. By improving the consistency amongst placement providers, the community would support consistency and enhance student learning experience. The COP recognises that this is complex and aims to establish diverse stakeholders to share current and best practice to create a valued, inclusive, and collaborative network for colleagues where there is sharing of good practice.