Study title

Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: Dental Nurses 2021

Dataset ID Number

FSD4002

Persistent identifiers

https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4002
https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4002

Data Type

Quantitative

Authors

• Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku)

Abstract

The data is part of a set of surveys aimed at determining waiting times for access to public primary oral health care. The surveys were collected from citizens, dental nurses, and oral health care managers. This material covers the survey of dental nurses, which aims to find out their opinions on the usability of patient information systems in assessing the need for treatment.

First, respondents were asked how often they assess the need for treatment and to evaluate their own competence in these tasks. They were also asked whether clients exaggerate their symptoms to get an appointment sooner, and whether clients go to any dentist or prefer a specific dentist.

After this, statements were presented regarding the use of patient information systems, including the skills required, benefits, and functionalities, such as the transfer of information to different parties using the patient information system. Respondents were also asked to rate their satisfaction with the patient information system in terms of assessing the need for treatment. Finally, respondents were asked to assess whether they believed that customers were aware that information on waiting times for dental appointments at health centers was published on the internet and asked how information on waiting times was produced for the internet.

Background variables include year of birth, work experience, frequency of work in assessing the need for treatment, population size of the health center, and patient information system used.

Keywords

dental care; dental health; dentists; health services; medical centres; oral health; patients; teeth

Topic Classification

• Medical and health sciences (Fields of Science Classification)
• Health care services and policies (CESSDA Topic Classification)

Series

Individual datasets

Distributor

Finnish Social Science Data Archive

Access

The dataset is (B) available for research, teaching and study.

Data Collector

• Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku)

Time Period Covered

2021

Collection Dates

2021-05-02 – 2021-06-11

Nation

Finland

Geographical Coverage

Finland

Analysis/Observation Unit Type

Individual

Universe

Dental nurses working in health centers

Time Method

Cross-section

Sampling Procedure

Non-probability: Availability

The survey announcement and link were sent to the designated contact person at each public primary healthcare unit that had granted a research permit. The contact person was responsible for distributing the announcement and link to the survey target group within their unit.

Collection Mode

Self-administered questionnaire: Web-based (CAWI)

Research Instrument

Structured questionnaire

Data File Language

Downloaded data package may contain different language versions of the same files.

The data files of this dataset are available in the following languages: Finnish.

FSD translates quantitative data into English on request, free of charge. More information on ordering data translation.

Data Version

1.0

Related Datasets

FSD4001 Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: South-Western Finns 2021

FSD4003 Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: Managers 2021

Weighting

There are no weight variables in the data.

Citation Requirement

The data and its creators shall be cited in all publications and presentations for which the data have been used. The bibliographic citation may be in the form suggested by the archive or in the form required by the publication.

Bibliographical Citation

Söderlund, Riitta (University of Turku): Access to Treatment and Waiting Times in Primary Oral Health Care: Dental Nurses 2021 [dataset]. Data version 1.0 (2025-10-02). Finnish Social Science Data Archive [distributor]. DOI: https://doi.org/10.60686/t-fsd4002; URN: https://urn.fi/urn:nbn:fi:fsd:T-FSD4002

Deposit Requirement

Notify FSD of all publications where you have used the data by sending the citation information to user-services.fsd@tuni.fi.

Disclaimer

The original data creators and the archive bear no responsibility for any results or interpretations arising from the reuse of the data.

Related Publications

Söderlund, Riitta (2024). National waiting time monitoring in oral healthcare - The role of triage dental nurses. Health Informatics Journal, 30(4): Article 14604582241270843. https://doi.org/10.1177/14604582241270843

Söderlund, Riitta (2025). Actionability of public waiting time reporting - exploratory research in Finland's public primary oral healthcare. Turun yliopisto, väitöskirja. https://urn.fi/URN:ISBN:978-952-02-0243-9