Trainee dental nurse Review

As a trainee dental nurse I am required to assist the clinician during treatments and appointments, disinfect the room after each patient, sterilise instruments between uses, be efficient, stay on schedule, be kind and friendly, keep on top of CPD and course tasks, and complete all assignments on time.

Yes I have learnt loads! Gained time management skills, confidence, speed of work, and improved my ability to deal with stressful situations.

Being based in an ortho practice has caused many difficulties with arranging observations. This is not any particular persons fault. But due to limited observer availability and needing to organise my observations with another practice (general) I am still yet to complete the observations. My assessor has been very helpful with helping to resolve this and get my qualified as quickly as possible.

I think there is a big lack in communication between myself, my practice, and tempdent staff. My assessor does her best, but as I mentioned before I have encountered lots of problems on this course. I have been assigned 4 different assessors over the past year due to people leaving. This was not ideal for my coursework as I would have to wait for a new assessor to take me on then they would have to go through all my work and familiarise themselves, this process would then repeat every time I was assigned a new person.

Quite a lot, the head nurse was fantastic with prioritising my course. The PM helps with this too.

My assessor is great with helping me, our reviews and 1-1 chats help me a lot to stay focused and on track.

It helps me have a deeper understanding of things that aren't always covered in my day to day job such as anatomy, implantology, nervous system etc. Nurses don't tend to need to know as much about these things compared to dentists but it is nice to be included.

We have networking events but nurses aren't usually included in this. We have open days which are always fun to be part of. Other than that, we don't do much as a team.

Yes

As much as there have been problems for me, this is not always the case for every learner. I know that tempdent have helped many of my friends get through their training too.

It is a lot of written work but it is worth it! You learn so much more in depth than other training providers.