Time Required by Dental Post Graduates and Graduates for Direct Patient Care in Peripheral Outreach Centre-A Comparative Work Sampling Analysis

Background: The inequity of oral health services persist due to inadequate dentist to patient ratio in the peripheral areas. The possibility of management of more number of patients lies within an efficient work force, in order to render oral health services in a well-organised manner. Objectives: The research was taken up with the primary objective of determining the most time efficient manpower in a peripheral dental unit. Secondary objective was to determine the time spent in each treatment procedure in proportion to total time involved in direct patient care. Third objective, was to recommend an appropriate range of sample for further similar studies using observatory methodology in peripheral centres.
Methodology: Work measurement was done for the postgraduate and the undergraduate students for the treatments performed by them in the unit. Participatory observations were made on randomly selected days, and timings were recorded using standardised stop watch. Descriptive analysis was performed for the data obtained using Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM Corp. Released 2010.IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows,Version 19.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.).
Results: Mean timing was found to be highest for all treatment procedures amongst graduates when compared to the postgraduates and maximum proportion of time was spent for extractions amongst all the treatments performed.
Conclusion: Availability of speciality services will help the hospitals render more proficient services to the rural masses.