Undergraduate Leadership Education for Dentistry: Preparing for Practice

This paper seeks to explore the topic of leadership education in undergraduate dental programmes. ‘Management and leadership’ has been recognised as one of the four main domains in the UK General Dental Council ‘Preparing for Practice’ document and is identified in the ADEE ‘Profile and Competences for the Graduating European Dentist’ document under the domain of ‘Professionalism’. Many dental schools throughout Europe are now planning for the inclusion of leadership education. Questions are therefore raised about how this might be envisaged: what should undergraduates be prepared for and how should it be done? This paper draws on emerging debates found within the wider, non-dental specific leadership studies literature that challenge traditionally held views of leadership and models of leadership education found currently in dentistry. It is argued that all students should be exposed to distributed and inclusive leadership practices to prepare them for the challenges they will find in their everyday practising careers. It is proposed that there is an opportunity to engage with dental practitioners (at all levels) to encourage the development of experiential, active learning to bring alive leadership in practice for dental students.