“Preparedness for Practice” in Mass‐Casualty Events: An Exploratory Qualitative Study of Aotearoa New Zealand Dental Graduates’ Perceptions

There is a rising concern to strengthen the global emergency healthcare workforce due to the increasing tendency of emergency and disaster events. This trend is mainly evident in countries such as New Zealand, which is attributed to its seismic risk profile and escalating exposure to extreme weather occurrences. This study aims to identify New Zealand final-year undergraduate dental students' perceptions regarding their "Preparedness for Practice" before, during, and after mass-casualty incidents (MCIs). This study adopts an exploratory qualitative, descriptive methodology while using the Zoom platform for online audio-only, semi-structured interviews as the data-gathering method between October 6 and October 20, 2021, and also in April and May 2022. Research findings indicate that the students had a limited and differing understanding of New Zealand's disaster profile. Surprisingly, the findings disclose students' perceptions of additional disaster-related capabilities not typically related to dentists' responses in MCIs. Study results have possible implications for reevaluating dental healthcare professional engagement in disasters. The expanded roles for dentists highlight a newly tailored scope that goes beyond the accepted clinically oriented skillset typically associated with dentists' disaster responses.