Volume 7 • 2020 • Issue 2

For Dr. Lin, figuring out her own path included research, luck, and exploring what felt most meaningful to her. She went to a general practice residency at the University of Washington, during which she was assigned to volunteer at the Seattle/ King County Clinic, an annual free clinic. “The experience was life-changing,” says Dr. Lin, who realized she was interested in public health dentistry. She now works at a community health clinic in Seattle, where she enjoys the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest and a job she finds fulfilling providing oral health care for patients on Medicaid or Medicare. Self-knowledge will always be hard earned. But a resource that provides comprehensive, unbiased information about an increasingly wide array of professional paths in dentistry is now available online for dental students and early career dentists across Canada. The Big Why The idea to develop a career options website arose from a task force to develop practice management resources that brought together CDA, the provincial dental associations (PDAs) and CDSPI. In a rapidly changing marketplace, practice management encompasses critical skills for dentists in all stages of their careers. “At a task force meeting, it was decided that our first project should help early career dentists,” says Dr. John O’Keefe, director of Knowledge Networks at CDA. “We wanted to create something that would provide practical advice and help right when new dentists really need it,” says Aviva Shiff, vice president of Customer Experience & Strategic Alliances at CDSPI. “Nearing graduation, many of my classmates are stressed about the next step,” says Natalie Pollock, who is set to graduate with a DMD this year from McGill and is current president of FCDSA. “It can be hard to find reliable sources of information about how to choose a job, or what a good contract looks like. I considered applying for a residency, but I found trying to compare residency programs overwhelming.” How the Website was Created Dr. O’Keefe and Dr. SuhamAlexander, a Knowledge Networks department colleague at CDA, worked to develop the scope of the project, and they met with a focus group of members of the FCDSA, including Dr. Lin. “The first thing we asked them was, ‘What are the absolute priority areas where students want information?’” says Dr. O’Keefe. “They identified five areas very clearly.” After verifying those priorities with early career dentists, Drs. O’Keefe and Alexander began to design the project around these 5 areas: • small practice associateships; • group/corporate practice associateships; • residencies; • specialty programs; and • buying a practice. “We recognized that by focusing on five areas we were leaving out other options for early career dentists, for example, pursuing a career in academia, research, public health, or the military,” says Dr. O’Keefe. “But we also knew that we were working on Phase One of a multiphase project. Eventually, we also want to provide resources for mid- and late-career dentists.” Additional resources will be added to the website throughout 2020. Next, they researched existing resources available from PDAs as well as career resources provided by organizations such as the Canadian Medical Association and the American Dental Association. “We wanted to see what was out there so that what we created would complement it,” says Dr. O’Keefe. “Education about career paths at dental schools, as far as I’ve seen, comes mostly from practice management courses, which often aren’t offered until later in the curriculum,” says Pollock. She believes there is a need for information about the business side of dentistry earlier on, so that students can start developing their skills with their individual goals in mind. The organizing principle of the website is that each career option is explored by a series of questions that a new dentist might have. Some are big picture questions and others are fine-grained and specific. “Our list of questions went from top to bottom,” says Dr. O’Keefe. “The initial questions are the ones to ask yourself or your closest advisors, and they get more detail-oriented as they go.” To create credible answers to the questions, Dr. O’Keefe and his team talked to leaders in the professions. “For example, when we needed to know about specialty programs, we talked to specialists, both newly-minted and seasoned, and we talked to program directors,” says Dr. O’Keefe. They spoke with dentists in private practice in different parts of Canada and some of the biggest corporate entities in Canadian dentistry. The team synthesized the information from several sources into an answer that was as direct and helpful as possible. At the same time, the team recorded personal stories of career transitions—how real people respond to real situations—to present as audio files on the website. “The website really pulls together diverse experiences and perspectives,” says Shiff. “It’s infused with real people, real colleagues, who went through the same decisions that new dentists face. The voice is very authentic, helpful and easy to understand. It’s direct without being too dry.” How the Website Works “The inspiration and efforts to bring the site online is an outstanding example of collaboration between the PDAs, CDSPI, CDA and other important contributors, including the volunteers on the CDA’s Practice Success Task Force,” says Geoff Valentine, associate director of Practice Support at CDA. Brittney Wong worked closely with Valentine on the design of the dentalcareeroptions.ca website. “We wanted it to be easy to navigate because a resource is only useful if people use it,” she says. “Because of our target audience, it was important that it was mobile friendly.” Wong says that most challenging functionality was having the website present information specific to the province or territory where the viewer was located. “If you Visit: dentalcareeroptions.ca “Since the launch, analytics show that about 250 new visitors come to the website each week. Considering the number of dental students in Canada, I’m enthusiastic about reaching our core audience.” – Geoff Valentine, CDA associate director of Practice Support. 16 | 2020 | Issue 2 17 Issue 2 | 2020 | CDA at W ork CDA at W ork