Grant helps Dental Oncology Program at the Princess Margaret fill unmet training need
The Princess Margaret Dental Oncology Program and the staff behind it are no strangers to taking the lead. Over the past 40 years, the team at Canada's first hospital dental oncology clinic has innovated its way from operating out of a storage room to running a seven-room clinic, receiving 15,000 patients visits a year.
With its vision to be a global leader in advancing knowledge and innovation ever in mind, the team has been working diligently over the past couple of years to increase the education and research output from the department, all while operating in the unique government-funded dental environment.
"Dentists running clinics within the public sphere are often faced with significant challenges, says Michael Glogauer, Chief of Dental Oncology at the Princess Margaret. "One of the challenges we face is finding training in management and leadership that focuses on our specific needs and circumstances."
Thanks to a recent grant from the Ontario Ministry of Skills and Training, The Princess Margaret Dental Oncology Program is looking to help address that challenge by offering a Masters Certificate in Dental Clinical Leadership and Management.
The advanced Dental Leadership Program, run in partnership with the Schulich Executive Education Centre (SEEC), Schulich School of Business at York University, is the first of its kind to provide such training for dentists working in Ontario hospitals and government-funded clinics.
Free to qualified applicants from across Ontario, the course gets underway virtually on Nov. 15 and runs one night a week for six months. Dentists will work in small groups to complete an Action Learning Project, focusing on relevant topics including digital fluency, negotiation strategy and managerial finance.
"The projects are designed to allow dentists to apply the learning from the course directly back to their current roles," says Dr. Glogauer, who is also the Program Director.
The skills and training grant that funds this program is the largest ever received by the PM Dental Oncology Program and is an important acknowledgement of the team's hard work. But, as Erin Watson, grant holder and Deputy Chief of Dental Oncology at PM points out, "the benefits of this funding will also extend far beyond the walls of the Princess Margaret.
"This grant will allow future dental leaders to develop the management skills they need to allow their clinics all over Ontario to thrive despite challenges, and to drive change for the patients of the future."
