Anderson R J, Morgan J D
Community Dent Health. 1992 Dec;9 Suppl 1:1-220.
This study was an attempt to persuade non-users or irregular users of dental services to change their behaviour and visit the dentist more regularly. The task was divided into two main parts. One was a promotion campaign undertaken in the Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands and the other a professional development programme for the dentists practising in the same area. The professional development campaign was designed to make the practitioners aware of the barriers to dental care which are perceived by patients. It was undertaken through a series of workshops on various aspects of practice development and promotion to which the staff of all the dental practices in Dudley were invited. Thirty-nine out of a total of forty-one accepted the invitation and attended some or all of the programme. In addition to the workshops members of the research team visited each of the participating practices regularly to discuss aspects of the programme and to record progress. The practitioners had varied attitudes to marketing and varied learning styles, and therefore they had different expectations of the nature and purpose of professional development. The majority attended solely to learn about the promotion campaign. There were also varying perceptions of patient recruitment and retention. None saw this as a serious problem. However, even before the new National Health Service contract for general dental practitioners there was the growing realisation that in the future there would be competition between practices and that this could be a reason for considering recruitment and the retention of patients more carefully. This was considered by many of the dentists, but not all, to be a problem of patient behaviour, linked with a degree of fatalism, and that nothing much could be done about it. There was a reluctance to change and the fear of the risks involved led a number of the general dental practitioners to identify and emphasise the difficulties in making new developments rather than their benefits. Only one quarter of the practices made any changes and they tended to prefer quick solutions rather than basic development. The experience gained in this part of the study indicated that in the future professional development should be considered in terms of the dentist's perception of the costs and the benefits; direct costs, opportunity costs, and the prospect of effecting change.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
本研究旨在劝说牙科服务的非使用者或不规律使用者改变行为，更定期地去看牙医。该任务分为两个主要部分。一是在西米德兰兹郡达德利区开展的推广活动，另一个是针对在同一地区执业的牙医的专业发展项目。专业发展活动旨在让从业者了解患者所感受到的牙科护理障碍。活动通过一系列关于实践发展和推广各个方面的研讨会来进行，达德利所有牙科诊所的工作人员都被邀请参加。总共41家诊所中有39家接受了邀请并参加了部分或全部项目。除了研讨会，研究团队成员还定期走访每家参与的诊所，讨论项目的各个方面并记录进展情况。从业者对营销的态度各不相同，学习风格也各异，因此他们对专业发展的性质和目的有不同的期望。大多数人参加仅仅是为了了解推广活动。对于患者的招募和留住也有不同的看法。没有人认为这是一个严重的问题。然而，甚至在新的国民保健制度普通牙科医生合同出台之前，人们就越来越意识到，未来诊所之间会存在竞争，这可能是更谨慎地考虑患者招募和留住的一个原因。许多牙医（但不是全部）认为这是患者行为的问题，与一定程度的宿命论有关，对此没什么可做的。存在不愿改变的情况，对所涉及风险的恐惧导致一些普通牙科医生识别并强调进行新发展的困难而非好处。只有四分之一的诊所做出了任何改变，而且他们倾向于选择快速解决方案而非基础发展。在研究的这一部分获得的经验表明，未来专业发展应从牙医对成本和收益的认知角度来考虑；直接成本、机会成本以及实现变革的前景。（摘要截选至400字）
