Background & Significance: Over the past decades, we have witnessed unprecedented technological exploration and innovation, which has changed our level of knowledge, created new fields and career options, while making others obsolete. To better organize the influx of information and advances, highly specialized journals, research institutes, professions, and disciplines were created. While this intense specialization serves the institutions and organizations that maintain them, these silos are becoming increasingly irrelevant to students as they make assessments about possible career avenues. To assist students with exploration of a career they may never have come across, we created Problem-Based Career Exploration. This paradigm defines an individual’s work according to the problem it addresses, and uses affiliation networks to showcase how people from various disciplines, and professions unite to address similar problems.
Innovation: In the literature, there is no standardized way of categorizing problems. We created the Outlaw Problem Index (OPI), a categorical system that ranges from the infinitesimally small to the infinitely large, based upon the ‘level’ on which disciplines/ professions potentially operate. The range was divided into twenty-one levels with each level given a numerical rating (from -10 to +10). The levels are defined as: Quantum ( 10), Sub-Atomic (-9), Atomic (-8), Molecular (-7), Genetic (-6), Macro-Molecular (-5), Cellular (-4), Tissue (-3), Organ (-2), Biological System (-1), Individual (0), Familial (+1), Community (+2), Organizational (+3), Local (+4), Municipal- City/Town (+5), State (+6), National (+7), Regional (+8), Global (+9), Cosmic (+10).
Approach: Using a snowball sampling approach, 23 oral health professionals across disciplines, professions, institutions and sectors were individually interviewed about their current work. Interviews were conducted using a semi-structured interview guide. Participants were asked to define their work according to a problem it addresses. After the interview, each participant was sent a survey to complete which included a request to categorize the level(s) on which the problem they work to address operates using the OPI.
Results: Of the 23 participants (13 women, 12 men), 100% were able to define their work according to a problem it addresses. Twenty participants (87%) completed the survey, and 100% categorized their work using the Outlaw Problem Index. The mean number of levels selected from the OPI was six levels (range: 1-14 indices selected). The levels that were chosen by participants most often were: Community Level (n=15), Organizational Level (n=14), and the National Level (n=12). Conclusion: Despite the profession and discipline, oral health professionals’ work addresses problems on a variety of levels. The Outlaw Problem Index can be used to inform the general public of the various levels on which professionals address problems in the oral health, general health, and general workforce arenas.