A Graduate’s View of Professionalism and Ethics

Dr. Haid has been practicing as a general dentist since 2001 after she graduated from the College of Dentistry and completed her General Practice Residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. She has a particular interest in focusing on professionalism and ethics in the next generation of dental professionals. "We have a wonderful profession," she said. "It is important for students to understand in the midst of all their clinical and didactic training that they must not lose sight of the fact that our community is held to a higher standard. As in sports, 'You play like you practice.' Therefore, if you do not practice being professional and ethical in your training, then upon graduating (when it is game time), who's to say you won't be tempted to make decisions based on needs or wants that are different than those of your patients'?" 

Dr. Haid feels it is beneficial to the college's community and the college's graduates as a whole to have had alumni represented in the work group — especially considering that students become alumni in a few short years. And while she feels professionalism and ethics are an important focus in dental education, Dr. Haid is proud of the high level of ethics she sees in the profession overall. "Interestingly, in the 19 years that I have been practicing, I have not seen a lot of problems related to professionalism and ethics amongst our new graduates as a whole. The times that I have seen any problems had nothing to do with age, ethnicity, or gender—but were instead specific to that person. In essence, I have seen people older and younger and for different reasons push the envelope on professionalism and ethics. Sometimes they have succumbed to outside pressures and other times it is just simply how they are." 

Dr. Haid continued, "It is important to teach students that our patients look to us for professional opinions because they trust us. They trust that, as their dental health care provider, we will assist them in making the right decisions for themselves based on their needs and concerns without the influence of outside pressures."