Support your dental nurses in diversifying their careers

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  Posted by: Dental Design      16th March 2023

Dental nurses are key members of the dental team. As well as assisting the dentist, their expertise spans anything from infection control and handling dental materials, to supporting patients during appointments.[i]The role of a dental nurse is absolutely essential for the smooth running of day-to-day practice, but are you helping these valuable team members in fulfilling their potential? Their scope of practice is wide reachingi and, by offering training opportunities to these individuals, you can help to boost their careers along with the success of your dental practice.

Support dental nurses with training opportunities

There are a number of opportunities for training available to dental nurses which can allow them to expand their abilities and utilise their full scope of practice competently and confidently. Whether you have a dental nurse who is interested in becoming an oral health educator, taking radiographs and intraoral photographs, or learning to apply fluoride varnish, there are a number of ways a dental nurse may choose to shape their own career.[ii] With the support of the dental practice, dental nurses can utilise appropriate training to help them achieve competency in increasingly skilled tasks within the practice.

Benefits to the dental nurse and the practice

This additional training brings with it a number of benefits for the dental nurse, the dental team, and the practice as a whole. With further qualifications and skills, dental nurses are able to complete extended responsibilities. These additional skills should be reflected in their pay, with a dental nurse who has undergone further training and who takes on extended duties expected to earn a higher salary.[iii] However, money isn’t the only benefit to learning new skills, with a diversified career boosting self-confidence, improving brain health, offering mental health benefits, and helping to build a future-proof career.[iv] By helping your dental nurses stay up to date with technological developments in dentistry, integrating these modern solutions into your practice will become increasingly straightforward as well.iv

Along with this, dental practices can benefit from improved patient care, leading to increased patient retention, and more streamlined workflows in practice thanks to dental nurses taking on additional responsibilities.iv This will also help to save time in practice as a dental nurse may be able to carry out a task which would otherwise be completed by a dentist. Because of this, dentists will have time available to see more patients per day, increasing revenue for the dental practice.

The role of the dental nurse in clinical note taking

Enabling dental nurses to expand their role to include assisting with note taking can be incredibly beneficial both to them, and the dental practice. Note taking is a notoriously time-consuming task which must be completed contemporaneously.[v] This can be a challenge for dentists as appointments may be engulfed by clinical note taking, rather than spending time with patients. For many dental nurses, assisting with clinical note taking is a natural addition to their day-to-day workflow, meaning that dental nurses could play an important role in streamlining the process.

According to the GDC, if a dental nurse is trained, competent and indemnified, they may “keep full, accurate, and contemporaneous patient records”.i If a dental nurse can complete the basis of your clinical notes during the appointment, much time is saved after the patient has left when the dentist reviews the record and makes any amendments or additions. Not only this, but clinical notes are likely to be a truer reflection if they are taken in real time rather than later in the day,[vi] ensuring your notes are compliant with GDC standards.

Kiroku, the innovative digital note taking platform, allows you to take complete and accurate clinical notes at the click of a button, making it quicker and easier to take notes during and immediately after appointments. The platform is simple and straightforward to use, but still allows you to create bespoke, comprehensive clinical notes for each individual patient. The platform makes it easy for dental nurses to use their full scope of practice and assist in note taking too, saving even more time and helping to create a more efficient workflow in your practice.

By investing time and resources in your dental nurses, you not only boost their careers, but also the success of the dental practice. Having a highly skilled, well trained dental team is beneficial to any dental practice. The ability to save time on administrative duties means that more patients can be seen every day, and patient care is carried out to a higher standard. This, ultimately, benefits the entire dental team in terms of helping to manage workloads and protect everybody’s wellbeing.

To find out more about Kiroku, or to start your free trial, please visit trykiroku.com

[i] https://www.gdc-uk.org/docs/default-source/scope-of-practice/scope-of-practice.pdf

[ii] https://www.dentalnursenetwork.com/news/dental-nurse-inspiration/652-scope-of-practice-for-dental-nurses.html

[iii] https://trykiroku.com/blog/the-best-15-dental-nurse-courses

[iv] https://www.dental-nursing.co.uk/features/why-upskilling-is-always-a-good-idea

[v] https://standards.gdc-uk.org/pages/principle4/principle4.aspx

[vi] D’Cruz, L., and R. Rattan. “Electronic clinical dental records: unintended consequences.” British Dental Journal 224.8 (2018): 580-582. https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2018.311


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