Hi!

My name is Rebecca, I am 26 and I have been a Dental Nurse for 2 ½ years. I studied on the evening course in my local college in Belfast, every Monday night straight after work, and sat my exam in May 2009 and qualified with the NEBDN National Certificate in Dental Nursing.   Becoming a Dental Nurse was the best decision I ever made, and believe me I have had my fair share of jobs.  Walk around your local shopping centre and at least 50% of the stores there have employed me.  If you’re the same as me I am guessing that you got pretty bored very quickly in retail.  I have been everything from a Christmas temp to Santa’s elf, to nursing home kitchen assistant to travel sales to assistant manager of your favourite accessories store, but it all got pretty boring very quickly, to me once you’re in, you’re in, there isn’t much progression and there certainly isn’t much money!  I came to Dental Nursing after working as a supervisor in a supermarket, which I absolutely detested and after a really bad day I knew something had to be done.  At the same time, a girl I knew who was a Dental Nurse knew of a surgery who needed Maternity Cover, that evening she called to say they were expecting me the next day for an interview.  I didn’t think I stood a chance, I mean there were qualified nurses out there, who would want some random from the local supermarket?  But no, they wanted a trainee and they hired me.  That was the beginning of the best career decision I ever made.

I love my job, it’s never predictable and no day is ever the same.  I really enjoy the cosmetic side of dentistry, I love seeing people leaving the surgery with that new smile that they always wanted after maybe years of being unhappy with the colour or the shape of their teeth.  The fact that we can transform someone’s confidence in themselves in just a couple of visits really makes it worthwhile.  I think it’s amazing that we can place a bridge and suddenly someone’s whole appearance changes.  I love it when the kids come in and are really excited to see the dentist and tell us about their new musical toothbrush and that they use it twice a day, educating them is so important.   Don’t get me wrong, it a stressful job sometimes, from that simple extraction that turns into a surgical because the root has fractured off and you just cant get at it to the patient at the desk demanding to be seen at 4.45pm on a Friday evening! I think sometimes the job is misunderstood by people, (the amount of times I get asked what I do and reply, to get oh so you’re the wee girl who stands there with the sucky thing?  Yes, 2 years of training to stand with a sucky thing, that’s all I do!)  I don’t think people realise the studying you actually have to put into it, there is more to it than meets the eye!

I am now studying for the NEBDN Dental Sedation course which is really interesting and a lot of work but it will be worth it!  I am also taking part in the Alginate Impression Taking course next year which I think is great that nurses are able to do this now.   There are so many courses out there for nurses now that there is always going to be something there to interest you and progress, whether you want to study sedation, radiography, orthodontic nursing… the list is endless for us to progress onwards and upwards.  I personally would love to work in Maxillofacial/Oral Surgery so I will do all the courses I can to get there!

I am really enjoying writing the articles for The Dental Nurse Network, its such a great website and is well needed and was well overdue as there was nothing of its kind out there for us before it came along, it’s such a great opportunity and I hope you enjoy reading them and are of some help!

And always remember… the dentists would fall apart without us nurses!!!

Hi, my name is Rebecca, I am 26 and I have been a Dental Nurse for 2 ½ years. I studied on the evening course in my local college in Belfast, every Monday night straight after work, and sat my exam in May 2009 and qualified with the NEBDN National Certificate in Dental Nursing.

Becoming a Dental Nurse was the best decision I ever made, and believe me I have had my fair share of jobs. Walk around your local shopping centre and at least 50% of the stores there have employed me.

THE ROAD TO BECOMING A QUALIFIED REGISTERED DENTAL NURSE

What makes a good dental nurse? How does one survive an industry that’s highly competitive and extremely wide? Where a little mistake could cause a major catastrophe?

Am sure most dental nurses will agree with me that being a dental nurse is not an easy job. Am going to write a bit about how I become a nurse, my experiences and challenges I have faced since I joined this industry.

I remember the day I arrived in the UK to embark on my studies. Coming from a country (Zambia) with less than 50 private dental practices. Where the Dentistry doesn’t receive much funding from the government either. Most dental departments and clinics are in the big hospitals and majority of dental studies are done abroad.

I initially wanted to go straight into dental school but discovered that its is very hard to get into a Dental school. So with advice from the Careers Advisor I enrolled on a course in dental nursing with the hope of getting into mainstream dentistry later on.

I applied for the course at London training college in waterloo and embarked on my journey of becoming a qualified and registered dental nurse in 2008, though I must mention that I did a course in health and social care before enrolling as a pre NVQ course.

Once I was on the course the hard part was finding a placement as the college only assisted with letters to give to future employers. I remember waking up very early every morning and dropping off my CV at different practices. And spending hours on the internet. After three months I got a job in a private family practice in Wimbledon working as a trainee dental nurse and receptionist, I was really excited about my new job and very proud of myself. Unfortunately I lost this job just after a month. Reason given for my dismissal was that I lacked good spoken English. I remember going home and sobbing so much in my boyfriend’s arms and he assured me that my English was good and encouraged me to keep looking for a job and so the search continued.

After two weeks my tutor and mentor at college Ann Marie told me about a practice in Harlesden in North West London that was always looking for trainee dental nurses. I gave them a call and was called for an interview and I got offered the job after the interview. If only I had known why they always employed only trainee foreign Dental Nurses, it would have saved me all the grief this job caused me later on. This was a really trying time for me. I remember going home every night and thinking of quitting. I worked for 4months while training without getting paid. The hygiene standards where very bad and nurses treatment from the dentist was horrendous.

While at this working at the surgery I met a very special friend from china Nan jian,who had worked at the practice for 6years.

Nan and I bonded because of this experience, she couldn’t live the practice as the practice had given her a work permit to work and live in the UK. As the weeks passed by we grew closer in our difficult time while working there, I remember one day after work while waiting for the bus my friend Nan told me about all the bad things that had happened to her while working there. We sat there crying and comforting each other for about half an hour, which I must admit might have seemed quite strange for all the other people at the bus stop.

To cut the story short my friend Nan left the practice as she got really sick and too stressed. At one point she was having too many nose bleed and had to do tests for leukemia. She encouraged me to leave as well as soon as I found another job. I made a vow to myself to find myself a good practice and leave as soon as I found one.

My prayers were answered after a month or so after my friend had left and I found a job at the practice where I am currently working.

I can’t say everything is all perfect now and am satisfied with the qualifications I have at the moment. But at the same time am not going to let a few bad experiences put me of continuing to work in dentistry. That’s why I decided to do a course in primary care management as this course will give wider options in my career. I know and believe a dental nursing qualification a ladder for anyone wishing to progress in any medical field.

What makes a good dental nurse? How does one survive an industry that’s highly competitive and extremely wide? Where a little mistake could cause a major catastrophe?

Am sure most dental nurses will agree with me that being a dental nurse is not an easy job. Am going to write a bit about how I become a nurse, my experiences and challenges I have faced since I joined this industry.

The Dental Nursing ‘Bug’ Dental nursing started for me 2 days before my 17th birthday.

I was employed as a junior receptionist and only planned to stay a year before going into general nursing - but haven’t left. After being thrown into the surgery one day when a nurse was off sick (as we all know training was done in house many years ago) I got the nursing bug.

My Dental Journey over 40 years.

I didn’t expect to get the job. I had just left school, having done badly in my exams, but I certainly did need the job and my mum wanted me “to have a proper career”.

So she persuaded me to answer the advert for a trainee dental nurse and I went, rather reluctantly for the interview.