Opinions of Nigerian dental consultants on ideal content current qualityand attitudes to referrals

Abstract

The current study was designed to ascertain the opinion of a cross-section of Nigerian dental consultants on: current quality of referral sent to dental specialists; what should constitute the ideal content of referral letters and to ascertain their opinion on attitudes of colleagues to referrals. The study was conducted using a structure questionnaire hand delivered to a crosssection ofNigerian dental consultants. Information requested includes: demographic variables; current quality; constituents of a quality referrals and current attitudes to referrals. The respondents were asked to rate their
responses to the questionnaire items on a 3-point and 5-point Likert scale respectively. Only 6.23%(SD± 7.66) referralswas perceived as excellent,whilemost of them, 42.63% (SD± 31.51) was reported as adequate. The result shows that response to referral is not always prompt while feedback to referral is hardly provided.Undergraduate students are hardly taught the art of referralwriting.The consultants agreed that date of referrals, patient's name and address, accurate description of complaints, history of patient's complaint and steps taken by the practitioner so far, should be included in a quality referral. The quality of referral sent to dental specialties at themomentwas considered unsatisfactory.The consultants agreed that date of referral, patient's name and address, accurate description of complaints and steps taken by the practitioner so far, should be included in a quality referral.

Keywords: Referral letters, dental consultants, content, quality.