The Dental Foundation Interview Guide

With Situational Judgement Tests

Zahid Siddique, Shivana Anand, Helena Lewis-Greene

• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781119109167
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Dentistry

The Dental Foundation Interview Guide: with Situational Judgement Tests offers an indispensable step-by-step guide to the dental foundation training application process.

• Explains the application and recruitment process and includes essential interview tips
• Offers a wealth of practice questions with detailed answers to ensure familiarity with the process
• Highlights the importance of professionalism, leadership and management within the dental practice
• Written by recent graduates who understand the pressures of the application process

Chapter 1
What is dental foundation training?

Dental foundation training is a year when dental graduates across the United Kingdom embark on a period of relevant employment general dental practitioners under a contract of service by approved educational supervisors to provide a wide range of dental care and treatment. The successful completion of the DF1 year is mandatory for those who want to work in the NHS as part of their future dental career. Dental foundation training (DF1) introduces new graduates to general practice and gives them a protected environment in which to work and enhance the basic dental skills achieved through their BDS degree under the supervision of a educational supervisor practitioner. The educational supervisor's role is to help and support the dental foundation trainee in all aspects of employment and provide continuous academic development through tutorials. The DF1 trainees also attend weekly study days outside of their general practice with the aim and objective of enhancing clinical and administrative competence and promoting high standards through relevant postgraduate training. The following competencies are included within the DFT curricula:

• to enable the dental practitioner to practise and improve dental practitioner's skills;
• to introduce the dental practitioner to all aspects of dental practice in primary care;
• to identify the dental practitioner's personal strengths and weaknesses and balance them through a planned programme of training;
• to promote oral health and the quality of dental care for patients;
• to develop and implement peer- and self-review and promote awareness of the need for professional education, training and audit as a continuing process;
• to demonstrate that the dental practitioner is working within the General Dental Council's (GDC's) standard guidelines.

Excerpts from the National Health Service (Performers Lists) (England) Regulations 2013, found at http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2013/335/pdfs/uksi_20130335_en.pdf (accessed 24 February 2016).

Chapter 2
The application process

Chapter Menu

1. DF1 recruitment process
2. How to apply
3. Key dates
4. DF1 schemes – where to work
5. DF1 interview – format
6. Scotland applications

DF1 recruitment process

All DF1 training vacancies are allocated through a centralized process for England, Northern Ireland and Wales. The online application process usually opens in the month of September for all UK-based year 5 dental students and EU graduates or overseas dentists.

The recruitment process is split in two stages:

• First stage – trainees are first allocated a particular DFT (dental foundation training) scheme. This is based on their DFT interview score ranking. The higher the candidates' ranking scores, the greater is the likelihood of them obtaining their first scheme preference and so forth.
• Second stage – trainees are allocated a particular practice in spring / summer of the following year. The individual practices are allocated through the DFT interview ranking scores, so those with the highest scores will receive their first preference practice and so forth. Some schemes carry out second-round interviews, where an algorithm is used to pair up trainee preferences with educational supervisor preferences.

It is important to understand that the DFT application process is competitive. The number of DFT training places is generally linked to the number of final-year students but places cannot be guaranteed for all UK graduates and it is therefore of utmost importance that all students give themselves the best opportunity to secure a place.

Over the past few years the number of candidates applying has exceeded the number of DF1 positions available with EU and oversees dental applicants also applying.

Table 2.1 shows the data collected for the applic...