PROFESSIONAL DILEMMAS OF ORAL AND MAXILLOFACIAL SURGEONS IN A CONSERVATIVE CULTURAL CONTEXT

Abstract

Objective: To explore professional dilemmas and ethically difficult situations faced by maxillofacial surgeons in conservative society of Pakistan.

Study Design: Qualitative narrative analytical study.

Place and Duration of Study: December 2015 to May 2016 was carried out including faculty from public, private and Armed Forces Hospitals in Pakistan.
Material and Methods: A narrative inquiry approach was used with in-depth interviews of nine maxillofacial surgeons involved in teaching and clinical work in tertiary care hospitals of public, private and armed forces hospitals. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and data cleansing was done. Qualitative narrative analysis of interviews was done manually.

Results: Thirty-five different situations were shared by the participants. The dilemmas were categorized according to the roles and identity of participants as clinicians, educator and assessor. The majority of dilemmas were related to clinical role (16) with the descending order in educator (12), multiple roles (4) and assessor (3) related dilemmas.

Conclusion: All participants faced dilemma situation in their professional life. They responded to those situations according to their own way not following any specific guidelines. The situations narrated by participants were not very different from those reported by general surgeons, physicians and nurses. The situation related to identity was peculiar to maxillofacial surgeon and might be due to emerging speciality in the region.