| Summary: | Person-centred care (PCC) is recognised as one of the key domains in measuring quality within health care, with patient feedback playing an increasingly important role in assessing the level of service delivered. This has been developed within the general medical services in the UK through the Quality Outcomes Framework and a similar model within general dental practice is currently being piloted. Measurement of PCC as an indicator of quality is likely to be highly relevant within the new Dental Quality Outcomes Framework (DQOF) and the Care Quality Commission key lines of enquiry toolkit. It is important that we are able to understand what we aim to measure before we can consider implementing a tool with which to measure it. This research project aims to understand what is meant by the term "person-centred care” in relation to general dental practice, with the intention that the findings may subsequently be used to inform development of a suitable tool to accurately measure PCC in the future. The research strategy was based on a systematic review and the use of qualitative methods to explore the views of patients and dentists towards PCC in dentistry. The systematic review identified a limited body of research associated with PCC in dentistry, with no studies involving the views of patients. This limited information was used in conjunction with the findings from my qualitative research to identify the key features which are relevant to the delivery of PCC in general dental practice. These features were categorised as relational and functional aspects of care. Relational aspects of care were considered to be closely aligned to the provision of PCC and viewed as an integral feature of its successful delivery. Four dimensions of relational aspects of care were identified: • Connection • Caring attitude • Communication • Control Two sub-categories of functional aspects of care were identified as physical environment and healthcare system, and these were considered to be influencing factors in the delivery of PCC. A provisional model of PCC was developed based on fhe research findings from the patient interviews and introduced during the dentist interviews. It is suggested that future research should include testing of this model to allow refinement and validation.
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