The Society of British Dental Nurses spoke recently as of one of the 5 in 5(mins) panels at the recent leadership event.
The General Dental Council recently published the ‘Dental Care Professionals Working Patterns Data Report’ (31st October, 2024) and our Executive Director, Fiona Ellwood was asked to present the findings from the perspective of the Society of British Dental Nurses. This was an interesting take on providing feedback, a 5 in 5 process was applied, 5 panel members present for 5 mins. Each member presented their own registrable groups perspective – Dental nursing being ours.
The speakers in panel 1 were asked to respond to 4 questions and as a result of these 4 questions, the Society began with what did July 2024 look like in general terms and what had our own annual surveys been telling us over the years, did the GDC data tell us anything new? The easy answer is no! If only we could have a higher response rate, yes more than half of the dental nurses on the register answered, but even 3/4s of the dental nursing registrants would help us have a much clearer view. Of course this was July, 2024 and by August 2024 we had lost over 2,900 off the register. Interestingly, others were surprised at how many dental nurses are not always clinical in their full-time roles and the number of self-employed or agency dental nurses seemed a surprise.
Fiona touched on realities and what the data is perhaps not telling us, she touched on who uses the title dental nurse and questioned why other groups can use it when they are working in another discipline. It was a difficult data set to read at times because the questions were based on the questions from the dentist survey and the training, education, and daily activities and stressors are very different. Interestingly, working hours patterns vary across disciplines and yet in general terms dental nurses work alongside other members of the dental team. We were delighted to have a 4 nation view, something that is evident in the monthly reports, but with more granular detail.
The Society made it clear that dental nurses are the largest group, we are difficult to track and monitor, we have the most transient and fluid workforce and what Fiona termed as a ‘leaky pipeline’ when it comes to students and importantly, to note is the lack of understanding of those who enter the dental nursing world and those who leave, echoing the need to concentrate more on maintaining the excellence in the existing workforce and then we wouldn’t need to even consider the longstanding pointless mantra of retention.
Fiona’s call to action for the leaders was
” We ask the dental leaders to focus on providing the utmost support to establish a sustainable, happy and well workforce, with psychological safety and opportunities to progress“