Research Interests
With a unique background in dentistry, community healthcare, and engineering, my public health research interests cover informatics, social media communications, community healthcare, and the effective delivery of healthcare – inclusive of provider burnout in healthcare providers.
Dental Provider Burnout
Provider burnout has been defined as an “A psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. The three key dimensions of this response are an overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” – and more importantly, a key component of both provider and patient outcomes (Maslach & Leiter, 2016). Research through the Harvard Global Health Institute, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the Massachusetts Health & Hospital Association, and the Massachusetts Medical Society, amongst countless other academic and media references, believe that provider burnout is a public health crisis due to the overwhelming primary impact on provider mental health, but due to the secondary tangible impact of provider burnout on clinical care outcomes (“A Crisis in Health Care: A Call to Action on Physician Burnout”, 2018). As dentists, we not only are included in these statistics, but are amongst the worst affected by these issues. By definition, dentistry is a high-stress and high-risk profession, due to the requirements of managing a fine balance of the knowledge of medicine, physics, material and aesthetic sciences – all while working in a small, bacteria-laden environment with poor lighting, a gag reflex, and a need for micron level precision. Further, as dental providers, we typically are afforded more clinical and business freedom, while working in environments without typical quality improvement and patient outcome measurement standards – except for that in which we develop as part of our own drive for perfection and desire for success. Jointly, these factors provide numerous red flags for earlier and more severe cases of provider burnout in the dental profession.
A Review of Provider Burnout & Dental Outcomes:
Presented 05/01/2020, Western University of Health Sciences
Dental Provider Burnout Effects on Clinical Care Outcomes
Where We Stand, 2020
This report is intended to be considered the bulk of the material summarized in the presentation above.
Provider burnout has been defined as an “A psychological syndrome in response to chronic interpersonal stressors on the job. The three key dimensions of this response are an overwhelming exhaustion, feelings of cynicism and detachment from the job, and a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment.” – and more importantly, a key component of both provider and patient outcomes. Dentists, notably are amongst the most effected by these issues in the healthcare sector, and yet minimal amounts of conclusive research exists.