Being an Associate, Member or Fellow of the RCSEd Dental Faculties means that you can apply for grants of up to £3,000, which can be used to help with expenses for those undertaking an appropriate educational qualification.
Adam Jones, Academic Clinical Fellow in Oral Surgery at Leeds Dental Institute, has been recently awarded an education research grant by the RCSEd Faculty of Dental Surgery. We spoke with Adam and learned more about how the grant will help support his research.
Having graduated from the University of Leeds in 2010, Adam has worked in primary and secondary care both in the UK and overseas. His research interests include understanding patient-surgeon informed consent interactions and developing tools to support shared decision making in surgery. He is passionate about sustainable healthcare development in low and middle income countries and works with dental development charity Bridge2Aid to support their training programmes in Tanzania and Malawi.
What does receiving the award of a Dental Education Grant from the RCSEd Faculty of Dental Surgery mean to you?
"This award will enable me to complete a qualification in Clinical Education at the University of Leeds. Completion of this certificate generously funded by RCSEd will equip me with the knowledge and practical experience to develop and deliver high-quality teaching materials to undergraduate and postgraduate dental students, alongside helping me to meet specific personal training needs for several upcoming research projects."
What is the research project that the grant will help you work on?
"This grant will allow me to fully contribute to a pilot project developed by Bridge2Aid in collaboration with Tanzanian stakeholders to deliver a series of educational programmes with the goal of ending Infant Oral Mutilation (IOM) in Africa. IOM is the practice of crudely removing developing tooth buds in the misguided belief that they are responsible for common infant ailments such as fever. This project aims to educate various influential community groups and leaders in the dangers of IOM."
Where will the completion of your research project take you and what are your plans for the future?
"My goal is to become a clinical academic in Oral Surgery, splitting my time between clinical work, teaching and research. The development of foundational skills supported by RCSEd through this clinical education certificate and the subsequent projects it enables will equip me with the experience necessary to embark on a career delivering high quality, evidence based educational content and research."
Visit this page to find out more about the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh grants and how to apply.