Dental educators’ views and knowledge of competencies required within a competency framework

The aim of the study was twofold; first was to explore and describe dental educators’ views of the competencies required within the AfriMEDS core competency framework. The second was to highlight the views of the dental educators, regarding the alignment of the AfriMEDS core competencies, with the dental curriculum. A case study approach to qualitative inquiry was used. The participants were purposefully selected, and two focus group discussions were conducted. An interview protocol was used to guide the discussions. The gathered data from the discussions were transcribed verbatim, and uploaded to the Atlas ti program for data analysis. Themes were identified from the findings of the thematic analysis. Results Dental educators required some guidance and clarity on the AfriMEDS core competency framework. However, they were able to recognize the competencies related to the AfriMEDS core competency framework. Two of these competencies, evidence-based dentistry, and private practice, were highlighted as core competencies in this current study; however, in AfriMEDS, only certain aspects of this was described. The results of this current study revealed that dental educators were able to make valuable recommendations about the additional competencies requirements for dental graduates.