Dr. Jeff Williams, who is known to many of our alumni, suffered a debilitating hand injury in a carpentry accident in 1996, and as a result has been unable to practice dentistry. With his practice sold, he has undertaken to further his studies in the business world by completing various Financial Planning Courses and his Master of Business Administration (from Saint Mary's University). While at SMU, and with the co-operation of the Associate Dean's Office at the Faculty of Dentistry, Dr. Williams completed a major research project entitled An Investigation of the Practice and Personal Financial Management Skills Among Alumni of Dalhousie University's Faculty of Dentistry, and Their Opinions of the Related Curricula.
Using a researcher defined standard, more than 90% of dentists rated themselves as competent in the three functional areas of personnel, marketing and communication management. Ten percent of dentists did not feel competent in the areas of insurance products and dental office systems management. More than 10% did not feel competent in the functional areas of financial / legal management and wealth management / retirement planning.
The study undertaken by Dr. Williams concludes that Dalhousie alumni dentists felt that better practice management skills were needed in areas where they felt less competent. It also suggested, that in these dentist's opinions, they did not learn adequate practice management skills during their tenure as dental students; with this opinion being shared by survey respondents irrespective of time since graduation. Having said that, alumni dentists did agree that practice management education should remain under the auspices of the Faculty of Dentistry (95% agreed) but revealed that its teachers should consist of a combination of private practice dentists (62.4% agreed) and a committee of non-academic practitioners such as accountants, lawyers, investment advisors, and dental equipment representatives (70.8%).
To this end a continuing education session was developed by Dr. Williams to address some of the areas of concern uncovered by his research project. This was presented on November 7 and 8, 2003 at Dalhousie University and was enjoyed by over 120 participants.
Dr. Williams and the office of Continuing Dental Education would like to thank the following presenters, who delivered the programme along with him, and so kindly donated their time and speaker's honoraria back to Dalhousie to be used for student scholarship: R. Daren Baxter, Timothy A. Brown, David Harris, William (Bill) R. Hiltz, Daniel (Dan) W. Jennings, and Sharon J. M. Kinsman.
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| Dr. Jeff Williams presents a cheque to Dr. Helen Ryding, Associate Dean, Academic Affairs, faculty of Dentistry, Dalhousie University. |
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