Assessments of Dental Students’ Entrepreneurial Self-Efficacy to aid Practice Management

Abstract

Introduction: A dental graduate face difficulties in establishing his private setup after graduation. It is essential to introduce entrepreneurial content in undergraduate education. The efficacy of students to launch their practice is known as Entrepreneurial self-efficacy (ESE). This study is aimed to asses ESE in order to implement practice management education.
 Methodology: A quantitative study was conducted in Lahore by selecting two dental colleges i.e. UCD, University of Lahore and De'montomorency College of Dentistry, Lahore. A Pre-validated questionnaire was used that contains 17 items. Descriptive statics were performed. Results were analyzed using SPSS version 23
 Results: A total of 216 students participated of the dental colleges involved in the study. Mean score of Entrepreneurial Efficacy was 5.1
 Discussion: The students of both institutes somewhat agrees to their entrepreneurial self-efficacy. They felt less confidence in their ability to search, plan and marshal to establish their dental setup.
 Conclusion: There is a need to introduce entrepreneurial education at the undergraduate level to strengthen the practice management skills of our dental graduates.