Name: Nuha Hatim Hawas

Institution: McGill University    
Email: nuha.hawas@mail.mcgill.ca

Project Title

Towards Effective Oral Health Care Management. A Mixed Methods Study

Short Project Description

Health care is changing, in terms of how and where care is delivered, who is providing those services, and how that care is financed. Health care management requires talented people to manage these changes. Health care managers have many opportunities to make significant contributions to improving the public’s health.

University dental clinics aim to provide high quality patient care, as well as teaching experiences for dental students. To obtain and maintain high quality care, there should be a continuous evaluation of standards of care, procedures and outcomes to determine possible deficiencies and their causes, as well as to establish optimum, cost-effective corrective measures.

It is not possible to reach the goal of effective practice management without obtaining the valuable satisfaction and trust of patients. Providing the highest quality of care and achieving the best professional standards that are currently required in the dental profession are the only ways to achieve that goal.  Patient satisfaction has an important influence on compliance which consecutively affects the treatment outcome and therefore the treatment quality. Therefore, patient satisfaction with oral health care is one of the indicators of high quality of oral health care.

This is a non hypothesis driven study aimed to evaluate an oral health care teaching clinic environment in the United Arab Emirates and assess the possible factors that may influence the quality of dental care provided. In this study we will evaluate the validity of an Arabic version of the Dental Satisfaction Questionnaire (DSQ) in the Academic Dental Centre at the University of Sharjah and qualitatively explore the positive and negative aspects of the environment and the attitudes of those involved.

This study will provide a validated instrument that could be used in an Arab population in the U.A.E to measure satisfaction with oral health care. This study will also contribute to knowledge on the issues involved in providing oral health care in a hospital training clinic environment and can also lead to recommendations, not only for the Sharjah Academic Dental Centre, but also for other dental services and institutions that share similar environments.

Academic Qualifications

DDS, Ajman University, United Arab Emirates, 2000-2005.
MSc Candidate, McGill University, Canada, 2008-2009.
PhD Candidate, McGill University, Canada, 2009-2012.