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Guest Editorial – 50 lashes by the GDC
I read with interest your recent editorial article 50 lashes by the GDC. As someone who has experience of being referred to the GDC, I can empathize with the author, but I am unsure if the solution lies solely with the Regulator. While concurring with the well-considered argument about the GDC approach, I would like to ask if we, the dental profession, are also exacerbating the problem by adopting a blame culture? I believe that the fault does not entirely lie with the GDC, but with a failure to educate dentists about the different perspectives we can use to acquire knowledge, specifically in terms of diagnosis and treatment planning. If we wish to safeguard ourselves, as dentists, it is important that we fully review the background to our own learning.
The acquiring of knowledge, which is needed to inform a diagnosis and gain consent, involves using established theoretical perspectives, but if these are used in isolation the knowledge acquired will have at least one fundamental flaw.1 To complicate things further, most practitioners probably have a preferred perspective, which could easily conflict with a patient's perspective. This is the fundamental background to many litigation cases.
These fundamental flaws are surmountable and one way to do this is by liaising with colleagues with different lenses, or perspectives, to our own. This type of peer-review learning leads to self-determined learning, referred to as heutagogy.2 Another way to learn about these lenses is through formal educational training. Advanced professionals, those who make a diagnose and acquire consent, must be familiar with each perspective and the associated flaws, not only for their personal safety but also for the patient. This type of training is starting to filter through, as theoretical perspectives are being taught to GDPs and educational supervisors in foundation training. However, as far as I am aware, it is not being made available to the wider dental community.
My GDC referral, four months after I completed my foundation training, was the making of me and I believe it safeguarded me and my last seven foundation trainees. Back in 2008 it made me reflect, upgrade my thinking and influenced the style of GDP I am today. Learning about theoretical perspectives is called epistemology and it takes the ideas discussed here into our individual daily practices. I would also encourage the GDC to update its own thinking around educational theory and learn how to safeguard registrants, rather than deliver punitive measures.