Public dental care as the dentist’s professional career phase

Abstract

Оver the last years the national universities undergo intensive changes: organizational, methodological and content-related. In this respect, study of the Russian doctors career is becoming more topical that makes substantial contribution to the national science development. Following the research works of the first half of 2020 year that revealed the dentist professionalization patterns in the residency period, the authors proceeded to a new phase of studying their careers employment. The research question is focused on understanding the role of the public dental care in the dentists professional career. The empiric study base comprises messages and comments to them in Accreditatsiya stomatologov [Dentist accreditation] community of the VKontakte social media platform. This community was founded on 1 June 2016 and has 30,000 followers. The period of studying posts from November 2020 till June 2022. 63 posts total has been examined. Based on P. Bourdieus capital theory, the authors have come to the following conclusions. Dentists, having graduated with a specialists degree, have a cultural capital (educational qualification) and a symbolic capital (diploma). It turns out to be not sufficient to transform two capital forms into an economic capital. It is necessary for professionalization to acquire a social capital (contacts, mentoring) as well as the economic capital (corruption, bribery). Working in the public dental care is contribution to the cultural capital (work anxiety overcoming), but further advancing is required for professionalization that is generally possible to achieve in private clinics.