Student selection and workforce maldistribution

Seemingly neutral prerequisite subjects and admissions settings systematically disadvantage rural and low socioeconomic status students - a question of fairness that has workforce implications.Have you ever thought about how you were selected into dental school, and whether that process was the best way to select future dentists? Or perhaps more importantly, how that selection process shapes the profession and ultimately plays a role in either improving health outcomes or exacerbating inequities in access to care.Some interesting new evidence looks at how selection criteria for medical school might perpetuate disadvantage, particularly for students from rural areas and lower socioeconomic backgrounds.In this episode of the Dental As Anything podcast I look at some of the evidence that underpins student selection, and talk about ways in which this might contribute to the maldistribution of the dental workforce, particularly from a geographic perspective. Could this then be one of the levers that might help improve access to care in underserved communities? Somecontentious food for thought.