Abstract
Abstract
Background
Interprofessional collaboration is essential to effective oral healthcare, yet collaborative relationships are shaped not only by communication and role boundaries but also by the organizational conditions of training. In dental education, the experiences of dentistry and dental prosthesis technology students may be shaped by communication problems, role ambiguity, workload, resource sharing, and patient or unit allocation within clinical and laboratory training environments. This study aimed to explore how dentistry and dental prosthesis technology students perceive and experience their interprofessional relationships, communication, and role boundaries within clinical and laboratory education.
Methods
A phenomenologically informed interpretivist qualitative design was used. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 12 students from dentistry and dental prosthesis technology programs and analysed using an inductive thematic approach supported by NVivo qualitative data analysis software. The study was reported in accordance with the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR).
Results
Four main themes were identified: Conflict Areas, Role Ambiguity, Stress and Anxiety, and Career Impact. Conflict areas included communication breakdowns, workload and time management challenges, equipment and material sharing, and unit/patient allocation. Participants described these themes in relation to the organizational conditions of clinical and laboratory training. Role ambiguity reflected unclear boundaries of responsibility, while stress/anxiety and career-related reflections were described alongside both relational and structural experiences.
Conclusions
Interprofessional and organizational dynamics in dental education were characterized by the interaction of communication patterns, role clarity, and structural training conditions. The findings identify role clarification, structured clinic-laboratory communication, and transparent approaches to workload and resource allocation as potential targets for future educational development and evaluation.