The Journal of the American College of Dentists
-
Evidence points to commercial sponsorship and personal financial gains for researchers leading to reporting more favorable results, tainting the climate of academic integrity, and negative public perceptions. Research institutions attempt to protect their own reputations and those of their faculty through establishing thresholds for reporting financial involvement and through committee review that may suggest that the sponsoring organization impose management practices designed to reduce conflicts or declining the funding. ⋯ The degree of understanding of policies regarding conflicts among researchers is uneven, and some regard these as private matters. Differences of opinion exist in the research community over whether disclosure of financial interests, although necessary, is sufficient to ensure a reasonable level of freedom from bias and to maintain public trust.
-
Bad outcomes occur in dentistry and sometimes these are the results of dental errors. In both cases, this essay will argue that apologies are very important in maintaining a relationship with the patient that is based on trust and mutual respect. ⋯ In particular, the dentist's fear that an apology will increase the risk of legal harm will be critiqued. Ethical and psychological reasons for making an apology will be discussed, and strategies to assist clinicians in making an apology will be offered.
-
Reflection is thinking about practice, based on traces of recalled facts or data, with a view toward better understanding it. Reflection is prompted by discrepancies between what we observe and what we expect and commonly takes the forms of comparing personal experiences, reviewing events mentally, looking for trends in data, building new prototypes, and managing impressions. ⋯ The essence of reflection is finding a meaningful way to make tacit knowledge available in explicit form. Often this involves story telling, with its attendant features of plot, emotion, dramatic tension, and the success of the hero.