Making time for what's important: what elements should we value when planning practice-based professional training?

Newly qualified professional healthcare graduates, whether training to become doctors, dentists, veterinary surgeons or nurses, tend to need some support as they take their first steps along that bumpy road from university to confident, competent practice. We identify some key features of the UK programme of dental practice-based training to acknowledge its strengths - 12 months of clinical practice within a well-established dental team, one-to-one weekly meetings with the same dedicated mentor, regular peer learning with the same group of peers over 12 months and the opportunity to observe role models from the profession including training programme directors and other general dental practitioners (GDPs). This educational programme is unique to dentistry and this article outlines why we believe it is important to value these features when designing postgraduate professional training in healthcare sciences.