Professional support services for dentists: a modified realist approach

Sitting within a wider programme of health workforce research, this studentship will meet a clear need to update and extend our understanding of professional support services for dentists in difficulty, using a modified realist research methodology. The project’s aim is to identify why, how, for whom and to what extent professional support programmes work to enable dentists in difficulty to continue to practise. This aim will be achieved through three phases of research, the first being a realist literature review to ascertain why, how, in what contexts, for whom and what extent professional support programmes for dentists work. This will be followed by a realist evaluation of programmes offered by professional support services for dentists in the UK. Finally, a set of recommendations and a toolkit will be developed to support the optimization of professional support services for dentists.

This research will take a realist approach to develop a programme theory of how an intervention, in this case professional support services for dentists, works to produce its effects. Realist inquiry is based on a realist philosophy of science and examines the interactions between contexts, mechanisms, and outcomes to identify causal explanations in the form of context-mechanism-outcome configurations (CMOCs). This research will also involve an initial mapping survey of professional support services for dentists and may use video-reflexive ethnography to observe professional support activities.

This studentship will be supported by an experienced supervisory team from Peninsula Dental School and the CAMERa research group .

Applicants should have a first or upper second class honours degree in an appropriate subject or a relevant masters qualification.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum English requirements for the programme, IELTS Academic score of 6.5 (with no less than 5.5 in each component test area) or equivalent.

The studentship is supported for 3 years and includes full home tuition fees plus a stipend of £18,655 per annum 2024/25 rate (2025/26 rates TBC). The studentship will only fully fund those applicants who are eligible for home fees with relevant qualifications. Applicants normally required to cover international fees will have to cover the difference between the home and the international tuition fee rates.

There is no additional funding available to cover NHS Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS) costs, visa costs, flights etc.

NB: The studentship is supported for three years of the four-year registration period. The fourth year is a self-funded ‘writing-up’ year.

If you wish to discuss this project further informally, please contact Dr Marie Bryce by email: marie.bryce@plymouth.ac.uk.

Please see our apply for a postgraduate research programme page for a list of supporting documents to upload with your application.

For more information on the admissions process generally, please visit our apply for a postgraduate research programme page or contact the Doctoral College .

Shortlisted candidates will be invited for interview 13 June 2025. We regret that we may not be able to respond to all applications. Applicants who have not received a response within six weeks of the closing date should consider their application has been unsuccessful on this occasion.