Trainee Dental Nurse Review

On a day to day basis my role as a dental nurse involves greeting patients, assisting the dentist throughout treatments, cleaning and sterilising instruments, cleaning the surgery in between patients, reception work when needed and being there to comfort the patient with any troubles they might have throughout their experience at the dentist.

I have learnt many new skills- including how to be confident in talking to a range of individuals, sterilising instruments to ensure that they are safe for use on patients, I have learnt how to work on reception and use the software we have at the practice- and I am now aware in how to act in a first aid emergency.

I enjoy the dental nurse programme very much, it has opened so many doors for me in the career I love doing. I enjoy everything I do within my job and I cannot wait to be a qualified dental nurse to complete further courses to further my eduction and progress further.

It is not very organised since I have been waiting for my end point assessment for 4 months even though I have finished all my pieces of work. This might just be due to the pandemic, however I have been left waiting many times through my course at different times.

I receive a lot of support from my employer when and if I need it, my manager is very helpful and will take the time to talk through situations with me to make it easier to understand. She will also help me if I need more knowledge on things and tell me and go through it with me.

I received some support but not much out of sessions, my tutor would take ages to reply to emails and text messages when I would want a reply within a day if i was completing a task. All nurses on the course in my place of work also had the same problem.

I believe that the training provider helps me perform since they have taught me the basics of what I needed to know. The training provider gave me the basic powerpoints and then people at my place of work spoke through it with me more so I had the information I needed

There are no extra curricular activities to get involved with at work currently due to the pandemic. But there have been talks to form a sports team before- and the company do a big event every year for an award ceremony however it has been postponed until we are able to meet again.

Yes

They have been so supportive and there is perks with the job such as uniform paid for and birthday vouchers. The staff I work with are so kind and helpful and if I need any help with anything they always help if they can talk through it so I understand.

I would advise you to speak to all the staff, get to know your tutor if you are doing an apprenticeship, know the role that you are signing up for since it can be very tiring if you are not aware of a healthcare role and you have to be able to speak to patients.