LAHORE: The Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry and the Department of Public Health, University College of Dentistry (UCD), The University of Lahore, organised workshops on moral development for young dental professionals.
The six-week workshops included six sessions with house officers in groups of 10 to 15 each. Dr Ahmed Bilal and Dr Naiha Muzammil gave the initial presentations. They enlightened the house officers with principles of morality and a basic understanding of moral values among Dental Professionals.
Dr Wajiha Alamgir, Associate Professor and Head of Oral Pathology and Oral Diagnostics Department, UCD, acquainted dental graduates with moral development. She also emphasised that it was the educational system's responsibility to focus on shaping the dental students into skilled professionals and making them think beyond their self-benefits. Her talk concentrated on the importance of ethics and its dire need in being health professionals.
The idea behind conducting the workshop was to identify the perceptions of ethics, attitudes, morals and behaviours among dental graduates.
Dr Arooj ul Hassan, Head of Department of Community and Preventive Dentistry, UCD, and the leading facilitator for the workshops, apprised the fresh graduates as tomorrow's dentists. He told them they would be responsible for their patient's health, and a lack of ethics might affect their academic knowledge and clinical skills as a concluding remark.
Prof. Dr Riaz Ahmed Warraich, Principal, UCD, lauded and appreciated the department for taking this much-needed step of discussing ethics and moral development with young dentists to guide them on the right path of ethical dental practice.
Certificates were distributed amongst the participants at each session by the senior faculty members in attendance.