Provision of Public Dental Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Experiences of Dental Staff in Greater Western Sydney, Australia

Tiffany Patterson-Norrie, Ariana Kong, Albert Yaacoub, Ravi Srinivas, Shwetha G. Kezhekkekara and Ajesh George ()
Additional contact information
Tiffany Patterson-Norrie: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia
Ariana Kong: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia
Albert Yaacoub: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia
Ravi Srinivas: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia
Shwetha G. Kezhekkekara: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia
Ajesh George: Australian Centre for Integration of Oral Health (ACIOH), School of Nursing & Midwifery, Western Sydney University, Liverpool, NSW 1871, Australia

IJERPH, 2024, vol. 21, issue 11, 1-16

Abstract: Background and aim: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic led to significant changes in health service delivery. Despite the risk in high-exposure environments, frontline workers such as dental staff were expected to continue delivering essential services. This study specifically sought to explore the experiences of dental staff in New South Wales and determine their perceptions of dental care delivery during a pandemic. Methods: Purposive sampling was used to recruit twenty-four dental staff from two local health districts. A deductive framework, as described by Braun and Clark, was used to analyse the transcripts. Four major focus areas were identified: responding to protocol changes, adapting to the impact of changes in policy and protocol, modifying dental treatment planning and recommendations for training and implementation of policies. Results: Dental staff reported that management staff were doing all they could and were most supported working in a team. Reduced contact with patients and personal protective equipment helped staff feel safe when seeing patients. Mental health and remote dentistry services could be more supported. Conclusions: Unique challenges were experienced by dental staff and their management during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Future considerations include improved support for staff and further investigation into the effectiveness of options such as teledentistry.

Keywords: COVID-19; dentistry; dental officers; oral health; qualitative; teledentistry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/11/1451/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/21/11/1451/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:21:y:2024:i:11:p:1451-:d:1511474

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().