From Trainee to Learning and Development Lead: My Dental Nursing Story

My name is Abbi, and I started my career in dentistry with Obex Dental back in 2013.

When I applied for a trainee dental nurse position, I envisioned a leisurely job to tide me over until I found something I wanted to do long-term. I pictured a bit of suctioning and giving stickers out to children. How wrong I was!

When I came home from my first week in surgery, I was completely shocked at the skills and knowledge a dental nurse needs in order to do the job. I remember wondering whether I had made the right decision in taking the role and whether I was ever going to fully understand it. I am so glad I pushed through those first few weeks, because I soon realised that dental nursing was a career I was excited to progress in.

Qualifying, with a newborn

While I was studying for my NEBDN Level 3 Diploma in Dental Nursing, I fell pregnant with my first child. I sat my final exam a month after she was born, which felt impossible at the time, but it actually worked out perfectly. I had been able to complete my portfolio and written exam while pregnant, so I only had the OSCEs left to prepare for. Leaving my one-month-old was difficult, but sitting that exam felt like a significant milestone and gave me something to look forward to in my career.

Building on my clinical skills

When I came back from maternity leave, I threw myself straight into a radiography qualification, because I loved the idea of building on my skills to better support my dentist and our patients in surgery. This was by far the hardest qualification I had done, as physics had never been my strong point, but I enjoyed finding ways to break the learning down into points I could remember for the exam.

I then discovered that I had a love for upskilling others, and I quickly found myself landing the senior nurse role, which really reassured me that I was on the right path.

Into implant referral work

Around a year later, I began working one day a week with our implantologist. Within a few months, I made the decision to move full time into the specialist referral practice, where I learnt so much more about oral diseases and complex cases.

A new role: treatment co-ordinator

After around a year, I started a role that was new to us as a business: treatment co-ordinator. I found myself one to one with patients, talking through their treatment plans and building rapport.

This was the first time I really struggled with barriers when it came to using my skills, as not all of the dentists found it easy to use me and my role to its full capacity. So I learnt the dentists' tea and coffee orders, which meant I could welcome them in the morning with a drink and an excuse to catch up briefly at the start of their day. I observed them in surgery and demonstrated my communication skills so they could see what I was capable of. In time, I built rapport with these clinicians, and my clinics started filling up as a result.

2020: a second baby, furlough and further study

By 2020, I had fallen pregnant with my second child, and I found myself furloughed due to Covid and then straight into maternity leave. I was so pleased when work offered to enrol me with the University of Essex to complete the Extended Duties Dental Nurse Disease Prevention course. I completed it once I had had my baby, using my keeping in touch days to work on my case studies.

I was so proud to be upskilling myself even further and making a difference to the patients I was seeing at a time when everything felt so uncertain.

When I returned from maternity leave, I worked closely with a team of extended duty nurses to build their confidence to see patients on their own and to use the many tools available to us, such as plaque scores and intraoral scans, to help guide conversations with patients and increase their motivation.

Becoming learning and development lead

Once I had completed the training programme, I was given the opportunity to become learning and development lead. In that role I am constantly reviewing and assessing learning and development needs across the business and building plans to support those areas, from dental nurses through to dentists.

As a result of this work, along with some of the work I had done in the community, Obex Dental put me forward for an award at the Dentistry Awards, where I was named Highly Commended Dental Nurse of the Year 2021 for the South. Can you believe it? Little old me!

Where I am now

Alongside all of this, I have completed my teaching and assessing qualifications to support me when helping others, because, as we already know, I have a real passion for upskilling people. I have recently started working with Dental Nurse Network as a speaker and educator, which I absolutely love, and I also support Michael, a dentist colleague of mine, as co-host on his podcast, Behind the Dental Chair.

As you can gather from everything I have shared, I really found my passion and my calling when I fell into a career in dentistry. I feel I have grown so much as an individual, let alone as a dental nurse, and none of that would have been possible without the opportunities I have been given along the way. The Abbi who existed in 2013 certainly would not have dreamt of qualifying as a dental nurse, let alone public speaking and helping nurses earlier in their careers to thrive in their roles.

My advice to dental nurses

For anyone looking at starting a dental nursing career, or anyone who wants to progress but is not sure how, my advice is to get a feel for where your passion lies in the field. It could be problem-solving and leadership. It could be developing your clinical skills for a more patient-facing role. It could even be training other dental nurses. Once you find the path you enjoy, look into the courses available to build on your skills, and embrace change.

I have definitely found myself riding the wave of discomfort that comes with learning something new or trialling things that have not always gone to plan, but I have learnt from all of it, and it has shaped me into the dental nurse I am today.

I would also like to reassure everyone with a familiar saying: Rome was not built in a day. We do not complete a qualification and suddenly become experts in the field. A lot of these skills are perfected and mastered over time, with more experience and more confidence. Do not let yourself fall at the first hurdle. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and perfect the technique until you clear it.