Patient Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ)
PAQs is one of five assessment methods required to be undertaken during your Dental Vocational Training (DVT) year to provide evidence of satisfactory completion of training.
The PAQ has been designed as a means of providing you with feedback from your patients on various aspects of your communication skills and professionalism.
Research has shown that after technical competence, a dentist's interpersonal skills rate as the most important factor in how patients perceive quality of their dental care. Even technical competence itself is thought to be judged by the patient in terms of dentist's communication, caring and information giving skills.
PAQs are recorded on a Microsoft Form via a QR code which should be handed out to consecutive patients at specific times during the training year. Trainees will have a period of three weeks only to collect the required number of PAQs. Detailed feedback on the results is given to trainees once the data has been processed.
Methodology
- During the training programme, you will be issued with a QR code by email by the Dental Assessment Unit.
- The QR code should be handed out consecutively to your patients aged 16 and above. A minimum of 30 valid questionnaires must be completed by patients to allow accurate feedback to be calculated. It is recommended that as many questionnaires as possible are completed via the QR code to ensure that there are at least 30 valid completed questionnaires.
- The Dental Assessment Unit will be able to keep track of, and provide information on, your response numbers with one week remaining in the collection period.
- The patients’ individual responses are to be entirely confidential.
What are the patients asked? See the video below for a demonstration of the PAQ
The PAQ - The questionnaire consists of 20 questions
Questions 1 to 13
The patient is asked to rate your performance in different aspects of communication skills and professionalism using a 1-10 scale. There is also a "can't say" option. Items are deliberately colloquial in nature, designed to be easily understood by the patients.
Item content was devised taking into account:
- results of published research into factors that patient's rate as most influencing their overall satisfaction with quality of non-clinical domains of dental care
- the DVT competency documents- communication and professionalism domains
- aspects of communication skills/professionalism in current medical/dental assessment programs
Questions 14 to 17
Questions included for statistical and evaluation purposes and a question designed to monitor for discrimination.
Questions 18 and 19
Comprises demographic and equality and diversity questions designed to identify potential sources of bias in patient ratings.
Question 20 - Free Text Box
A space is provided at the end of the questionnaire to allow patients to leave their comments on the encounter and any suggestions for improvement.
PAQ Dentist Guidance
- PAQ Dentist Guidelines ( Download, 171 KB)
PAQ unexplained discrepancies
The questionnaires should be completed by patients only. DO NOT LET ANYONE ELSE APART FROM A PATIENT COMPLETE A FEEDBACK QUESTIONAIRE.
Patients should complete the questionnaire at the time of the appointment. While assistance may be given to a patient who may have problems using the QR code, the responses must be those of the patient.
DO NOT COMPLETE A QUESTIONNARE YOURSELF
Electronic devices can provide data on usage and the Dental Assessment Unit has the ability to investigate this usage data.
PLEASE NOTE THAT THE DEFAULT POSITION FOR ANY TRAINEE IDENTIFIED AS BREACHING THE ABOVE RULES WILL BE AN AUTOMATIC REFERRAL TO THE NATIONAL REVIEW PANEL ON GROUNDS OF PROFESSIONALISM AND THEY MAY BE REFERRED TO THE GDC.
Should you feel that you are not going to collect enough PAQ results within the required timeframe, please follow the instructions below.
Three week window - What you need to know
You have a three-week window to collect a minimum of 30 PAQ’s, however we recommend collecting as many responses as possible.
If you are going to require more than three weeks, please follow the guidance below and contact your Adviser BEFORE the three-week deadline. Any PAQs collected out with the three-week collection period will be voided by the Dental Assessment Unit if an extension or amendment to the collection dates has not been granted by the appropriate person. If you take holidays during the collection period, please follow the guidance below.
EXAMPLE
If the collection period was from Monday 13th January to Friday 31st January but the VDP was off on annual leave for 1 week during this period the end date for the collection period would be extended to Friday 7th February, providing the Adviser has been notified in advance and the leave has been authorised.
How do I request a PAQ Extension?
You will only need to request a PAQ extension if you are required to collect PAQs over more than 15 working days. This does not include any days taken as leave or days the practise is closed.
You must request a PAQ extension AS SOON AS POSSIBLE following the start of the collection period.
Please click here to see the PAQ extension flow.
What if I am on leave during the time I have to collect PAQs?
If you are on leave or the practice is closed due to public holidays during the collection period, please email the dates to dental.assessment@nes.scot.nhs.uk BEFORE you start collecting PAQs. Please ensure any and all leave has been notified to and authorised by your Scheme Adviser in advance.
Please click here to see the PAQ scheduled leave flow.
PAQ Deadlines
PAQ collection will run from Monday 13th January 2025 to Friday 31st January 2025. The dates can be found on the DVT Assessment Dates 2024-2025 sheet.
PAQ Feedback
- Feedback will be made available to you through the Turas Training Portfolio. Your trainer, adviser and director will also be able to view the feedback.
- Feedback details the average rating per question (Q1 to Q13) and a rating histogram showing the frequency of patient responses per question. You will also be given feedback from Q16 and anonymous comments from Q20.
- If you receive an average score of 3 or below for any question in Q1 to Q13, you will be required to undertake an additional round of PAQ distribution and score > 3 for all Q1 to Q13.
- If you receive an average score of 3 or below for Q1 to Q13 as a group, you will be required to undertake an additional round of PAQ distribution and score > 3 for Q1 to Q13
- If you receive an average score of 8.5 or below for Q1 to Q13 as a group, you will be required to undertake an additional round of PAQ distribution with the aim of improving your performance.
- Responses to Q16, Q18 and Q19 do not appear on your feedback as they are designed for statistical evaluation of the PAQ. Should you wish to receive this information it can be made available as can general information on your participating patients e.g. age range and gender distribution.
Requirements of Satisfactory Completion
Defined number of PAQs are submitted for analysis
If poor performance is identified, this is addressed using targeted training, and, if appropriate, additional defined number of PAQs are submitted following action which provides evidence of improvement
A signed Summary of Performance sheet is submitted for each valid PAQ round
