The dental workforce in Malaysia: changes and implications

• Main Author: Che Musa, Muhd Firdaus
• Format: Book
• Language: English
• Published: IIUM Press 2022
• Subjects: RK Dentistry
• Online Access: http://irep.iium.edu.my/97242/1/97242_The%20dental%20workforce%20in%20Malaysia%20%20changes%20and%20implications.pdf; http://irep.iium.edu.my/97242/
• Institution: Universiti Islam Antarabangsa Malaysia

The global dental workforce is facing a dynamic change as a result of multiple influences such as policy, politic, economy, social, disease trend and technology. Malaysia, a high middle-income country, has responded by increasing the legislation and regulation of the dental profession through the recent amendment to the Malaysian Dental Act. The number of dental schools has also been increased in the last two decades to ensure that there are adequate health workers to meet the needs and demands of the population also lead to a great concern amongst policy makers on how this skill yet expensive dental workforce will be utilised in the future. There is a need for a research-informed action to understand the ongoing dynamic profile changes of the dental workforce, its influences, and exploring their potential implications which are uncertain in meeting the need and demand of the population. The aim of this second series of book is to present findings on the drivers for change and their potential implications for the dental workforce in Malaysia from the perspective of the key stakeholders; whilst validating the perceptions of final year dental students (Book-series 1) and make recommendations for the future in relation to serving the population. Semi-structured interviews were carried out with stakeholders (n=20) in 2014. A topic guide was used to explore the drivers for changes and their potential implications for the dental workforce. Interviews were recorded, transcribed and analysed using a Framework Analysis. The interviews with the key stakeholders (n=20) identified drivers for change for the dental workforce across four main domains: ‘policy and politics’; ‘demography and disease’; ‘social and economic’; and ‘technology and scientific development’ and their potential implications for future uncertainties particularly at the level of specialisation and privatisation. The leading drivers are principally related to the first three domains and included: rapid growth in dental education, recent capping of schools and student intake; trends in dental diseases together with meeting the needs of the growing and ageing population, as well as the impact of trade liberalisation on dentistry (education and health services).