Dental Nurse Assessor

Hi again,

I wouldn't pay to do the course yourself I would say it's best if you can get a job where your employer pays for you to do it. Simply because to become an assessor you have to put a portfolio together of candidates that you see on a regular basis as it all counts as evidence of you doing the job to a certain standard.

It was a external management company that came in to see me about every month, the chap was very helpful and told you what was needed to achieve the qualification and how he would go about it. If I can remember right I think it took about 6 months to become qualified, which is pretty good as you are doing the job all the time so any longer would just be dragging it out.
I do know of some practices that have paid for nurses to do the course as then they can have them train all their trainees but I don't think generally many practices do it.

It doesn't matter if you've only worked in the NHS as the main thing is that you are a qualified dental nurse. You assess trainee nurses in the practices they work plus give them support with their portfolios as all this evidence is then submitted so they can then sit the exam and gain their NVQ.
You have a set of NVQ standards that you assess them against all the time and they have to meet all the criteria.

Like I said it's hard work but very rewarding but I have noticed that dental assessor jobs are few and far between I see lots of health and social care assessor jobs but dental ones do seem to be rare.

Hi

Thank you very much for that this is all very helpful. I'm too sure how exactly I want to do it I've only just come across this job as i'm originally from Scotland and as far as i'm aware this role is not available there. I would like to do it full time though and see how it goes.

I've seen a few jobs advertised but they have all wanted you to be qualified. I have looked at the course but I couldn't afford it at the moment. I'm trying to see if my work would possibly pay for it chances are very low but I can only ask

How long is the course? I've always worked in NHS so obviously have no private experience only the odd private filling or crown if the patient wants it. Do you think this would be a problem or is the training for trainee nurses mainly only general nurses (I hope this makes sense )

Hi there,

I've been a qualified assessor for a number of years now. It's hard work but a very rewarding job and you have to be prepared to put a lot of time into it.
I went into assessing because I wanted to make sure nurses where being trained properly and given the support they needed to become qualified.

When I started out the company I worked for paid for me to go on the course. I worked full time as an assessor but some of my colleagues where part time. It's personal choice really.

I know when I've seen assessor jobs advertised a lot of them want you to be qualified but there are still some companies that will pay for you to go on the course as well as work for them.

Are you wanting to be an assessor full time?

Hi

I've been a dental nurse for coming on 7 years now and I'm getting slightly bored I do like my job to a certain extent but i've been doing the same thing everyday for 7 years now. What I am interested in is becoming an assessor. I've trained up a few trainee nurses now and I really enjoy it. I like helping new nurses deal with the stresses of working in a NHS practice, giving them advice on what they can do to make their lives easier at work and so they can do the job properly with out cutting too many corners which unfortunately we all have to do from time to time.

I've looked into a few jobs but from what i'm understanding you need to have a qualification for this??? Any advice on what I would have to do to get this from any qualified assessors would be much appreciated. Also is this a full time job or do you still nurse at the same time?