The GDC have published the August 2021 statistics, at the time of publishing 58,053 dental nurses were recorded as being on the register and those shows an increase on last year of 814. What is currently not clear is how many are new registrants and how many existing registrants have (if any) not renewed their registration. In 2020 after a drop in registrations of 6.6% there were 57,239 dental nurses recorded at the same point in time. We have made a request to understand how many dental nurses did not re-register as of 2021.
At the time of publication it appears that there has been:
- An increase in England
- A decrease in Northern Ireland
- A decrease in Scotland
- An increase in Wales
- An increase in non-UK
- A decease in Chanel Islands
These numbers are known to change on a regular basis and we hope to receive further information from the GDC shortly.
UPDATE 27/08/21 –
After a request for more details we can now share with you that whilst there were 4,595 new dental nurse registrations in August 2021, there has also been the largest loss recorded since 2017 of experienced dental nurses. The loss is identified as 4,031 experienced dental nurses who did not re-register, despite this it is encouraging to see an overall increase of 564 dental nurses entering the register. What is disappointing is the loss of experienced dental nurses, we welcome all those new to the register and look forward to working with them through their professional careers.
SBDN will continue to call for a different level of appreciation, acknowledgement and future for dental nurses and dental nursing. It is no secret that the dental nursing workforce is one that is fluid, but without investment on a number of levels it is hard to see how there will be improvement and how we can gain ground on having a sustainable workforce. The vision of the Steele Report of 2009 and registration before that, all brought hope, but it is simple to see that in reality we have not travelled far, we urge stakeholders to come together and re-evaluate dental nursing as a whole, if not for the purpose of better outcomes then at least for the sake of service provision.
Click on the link to see the information provided by the GDC in full https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports
