Leaving dental nursing and starting new

It made me extremely sad to read your story,the racial harrasment is a criminal offence but you would need evidence to prove it. Your employer has a right to prevent stress in the workplace. You should contact ACAS who can help with employment issues. Don't give up if you enjoy being a dental nurse there are other practices that. You could be happy in. Bullying in Dental practices needs to be addressed as I have heard this a lot.

BigVlittleb are you OK? What type of job are you moving to?

By the way, any head nurse with high standards will encounter workplace whining from both dentists and nurses. We have to give negative feedback from time to time. Plain dental nursing much more enjoyable.

Wow! Workplace racism and your employer did nothing about it?!!!!!! Read your contact (usually termed 'gross misconduct ').

But school leavers with poor work ethic may be found skulking over their phones in your new workplace, dental or otherwise. If they are too lazy to do their work and you do it for them, then you allowed this to occur. Do not allow others (bosses or co-workers) to take advantage of your good nature. This happened to me. I grew paranoid. I imagined my bosses were having a private joke at my expense. (In fact, I think working their staff to point of illness, demanding limitless flexibility, failing to refund expenses and misleading patients, suppliers, and HMRC is for them 'just another day at the office') Naively I worked harder and harder. I am a not a quitter and I had had such a rosy picture painted when I took the job..... I was taking everything far too personally and getting so upset I could not fulfill the expectations. (If I fail to please I my automatic response is 'I must improve'). In fact their expectations were completely unreasonable. Eventually I realised and left.

Going to work should be unemotional - your employer pays your wage, you put in the hours, no drama. Go home and never give it a second thought.

Now older + wiser I coach myself 'I WILL NOT be kicked', 'It's just a job', 'Her laziness makes ME look good', ' His grumpiness is just a character trait exacerbated by stress' (with regard to colleagues)

The fact that you misread your boss's preference for dealing with slackers must have been so discouraging. Blaming you not helpful. There tends to be a high drop-out rate in new dental nurses whether the vibe is strict or chilled. The job is demanding - most decide it's not worth it for the unrelenting hard graft. Even if happy, they often move just for a change of scene. If she doesn't mind paying wages to staff to doss around - that's her choice, why let it bother you?

You sound like a truly strong and conscientious person: any workplace would be lucky to recruit you.
Temping is a reliable backup for money while you consider your options. Also it allows you to observe other practices and compile your own list of places you wouldn't mind working if you did decide to stay with dental nursing. Lovely bosses and like-minded work colleagues are out there!

Good luck!

Although i have interviews coming up (and i dread to think what the hell will happen in my future new workplace) i am still looking to leave profession altogether
I am scared but know i will have to take that leap

Hi

I've been nursing nearly 20 years and never have heard of such appalling treatment of a nurse, I'm so very sorry you were bullied and treated so badly.
I don't know if I could advise a way forward for you but if you still wish to be a dental nurse you could move away from practice and in to community or hospital? If not then it's not too late to study in something else. I'm about to start an open university degree you can make a fresh start.
Don't ever let small minded people break your spirit be proud of who you are and whatever you believe in !

I totally agree! I am only a trainee nurse and have been working for 9 months and I can see what’s gonna happen in next years... I had already so many problems with people while I was the best trainee nurse in the practice. I was always polite always hard working but ended up dealing with so many problems. Firstly whenever my dentist got angry he always took out of me. Why? Because I am the nicest one, I am not bitchy and I can take all the crap...Bullying from senior receptions getting the blame from senior nurse pehhh so I know whats gonna happen in couple of years I will be dealing with grumpy and moody dentists, being told off all the time by other people and still get crap money. It’s a hard job and not worth all the stress. I love the job tbh but I am leaving my practice in 6 months after I pass the exam and applying for hygienist course but my boss keeps telling me that he is gonna put me on a different post-graduation course. Of course, who else would do all the job for shit money lol

Hi there
I just came here to vent and hopefully hear from people who have been through hardship in dental nursing like i have.
This post will be candid with no exaggeration whatsoever and i will try not to keep this entry too long

Ive been in this career for almost 15 years and it has been traumatic from the start to present day, ive been through racism by other staff incl. dentists in numerous practices and severe workplace bullying which got so bad that i couldnt bring myself to take care of my personal hygiene and now i am paying the price as i now have loose teeth and will need expensive work done to correct them

In my current practice i have been there a little over 4 years and was appointed head nurse and its not worth it at. all.
Over the 4 years its been trainee nurses and i have had to put up with more racism and bullying which is embarrasing as these people are a lot younger than me. Last year was so bad as one particular trainee i had given all my time and effort to be a great nurse and i pushed her in her college coursework (which resulted her being top of the class) and that was the only time dental nursing has been rewarding. Only to have her suddenly turn around and throw it back in my face, cussed me out swearing and everything, and even throw in false accusations in the mix and called the police on me(which never got anywhere to her embarrassment). She made sure she did this when other nurses were present.

Fast forward one year later, this april i kept having to deal with reception staff who keep messing about on desk, sneaking their phones on them, and tasks are piling up. I keep having to repeat myself as i did with the last staff and i gets really old really fast. The principal dentist keeps telling them off but nothing has changed to this day

On the 1st of April the principal dentist called me into a meeting and told me off about my (understandibly) suffering work performance which lead her to tell me that the high staff turnover was all my fault, all the previous trainee nurses have left because of me. I almost burst into tears, it was complete torture trying to keep composed. She was telling me off for being strict. And at the same time i had no support from her whatsoever when past and present staff were treating me how they wanted to.

She also doent mind if dental nurses do post-qualifications as long as they dont become a hygienist/therapist/dentist etc as obviously she wants to hold onto her staff as tight as possible. She’s also way too dependant on me and i end up doing EVERYTHING in the practice to a point where i have fallen behind on my tasks

My last practice i went through severe bullying by other dental nurses and to go from that to this...

Because years going through the same things it has stripped me away of any self-worth and there are times i could care less if i crashed the car on the way to work or not

There are times over the years that i have been racking my brain on how to move on as i had no idea what i wanted to do

Im also so sick dentists treating myself and other nurses like dirt too, going as far as telling you what they think of you, even in front of patients. -don’t they realise the patient picks up on these things as well?

But 15 years of complete and utter BS? Its overdue time to walk away and start a new life in a different career

Its not worth it