This series of articles is designed to help you develop your dental nursing practice. This article, the fourth in the series, examines the importance of reading up-to-date journals, publishing your own work and attending conferences

Dental nursing is an evolving profession. If you want to develop your own practice and move into a more specialist or advanced way of working then you will need to take an active step forward.

If you are working as a dental nurse and have never opened a book or looked at a dental nursing journal since you qualified, nor shown any initiative in your practice, then it is highly unlikely that your senior colleagues will identify you as someone who they want to invest their finances and clinical reputation in spearheading new developments. Your general professional development and ambitions to move into specialist or advanced practice needs to be planned and built upon solid foundations.

If you did not read the second article in this series on ‘objectives’ then find the January 2013 edition of Dental Nursing and read about the importance of setting objectives to advance your practice. To develop your practice you need to build upon the foundations of clinical experience and published evidence.

Consider the case of Jenny (case study 1) who has ambitions to work in a specialist practice as an advanced practitioner.

Regular reading of a professional journal is a mark of all professions. At first it can be quite difficult to discipline yourself into reading an article about an area of practice that you have little knowledge or experience in, but it is worth persevering. The more you read the easier it becomes, and the easier it becomes the more you will enjoy it. Try and build into your monthly routine at least a couple of hours when you spend some quality time reading a professional dental nursing journal. This will broaden and deepen your knowledge of the wider dental nursing profession. If the journal has some form of reflective learning log then spend some time thinking about what you have read and keep a record for your personal portfolio. Once you become familiar with reading a professional journal, then you should consider writing your own article.

This is not as daunting as it might first appear. If you look back to the February edition of Dental Nursing you will find the ‘author instructions’. As well as clinical articles this journal is also interested in opinions, letters, new projects, or general articles about the different aspects of dental nursing. This was the next challenge for Jenny. Consider the second case study (case study 2).

I’ll now issue you a challenge. Based on the fact that you have picked up this journal and read at least the first half of this article, I’m making the reasonable assumption that you are interested in developing your dental nursing practice. For that reason, my challenge is that you seriously consider what you could write for publication in Dental Nursing. It could be a letter in response to one of the articles that you have read, something more controversial, or your practice may have a piece of new equipment? Or is there a case study about a patient that you think might be interesting to write about? The challenge is to take that active step forward and try writing the article. The more you read a journal, the more confident you will become.

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Case study 1

Jenny had identified that her long-term objective was to work as an advanced dental nurse with greater responsibility in a specialist orthodontic unit. Her medium-term objective was to broaden and deepen her knowledge of dental nursing and gain an appropriate degree. Jenny examined the list of courses published in Dental Nursing and found that there was a centre quite near to her. She contacted one of the lecturers who agreed to meet up with her and talk through some career advice.

Mrs Guilford, the lecturer, told her about the courses that her college runs and encouraged Jenny to apply for one of them. She also gave her some general advice. This was to make sure that she regularly reads a dental nursing journal, not just flicks through it, but spends two hours a month actually reading all the articles and looking at all the adverts. Mrs Guilford explained that reading all the articles was a good way of getting an overview of the breadth of different types of clinical practice. Reading the adverts also gave nurses a glimpse of the different types of jobs being advertised, and whether they require specific qualifications or experience. The adverts also include different conferences and study days that are available. Jenny found this advice useful and went away determined to regularly read a journal thoroughly and apply for the degree course that Mrs Guilford ran.

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Case study 2

Jenny was now 2 years into her 4-year part-time degree. As part of one of the modules she had written a case study about one of the patients that came to the practice. It was about a man in his early forties who was undergoing a series of treatments after having neglected his dental hygiene for 20 years. The tutor, Mrs Guilford, had given it a high mark and Jenny was pleased with her work. Mrs Guilford suggested that she adapt the case study and submit it to a journal for publication. Jenny was a little unsure, but with Mrs Guilford’s encouragement she shortened the case study and sent it in to the journal. After a few weeks she received some feedback from the editor suggesting a few changes, but saying that if she made the changes they would consider publishing it. Jenny made the changes and resubmitted her case study; it was then accepted for publication. Jenny was so proud of her first publication. Her practice manager and the senior dentist were now taking notice of Jenny and realised that she was very serious in her ambitions to advance her practice.

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Case study 3

Jenny had now completed her degree. As part of her final year she had completed a dissertation examining the use of distraction therapy in children undergoing dental treatment. Mrs Guilford suggested that she submit an abstract to a forthcoming national dental practitioners’ conference. It was accepted and Jenny was asked to present a 20-minute talk about her findings. Her practice agreed to pay for her to attend. On the day Jenny was both very proud and very nervous. She thought back to 4 years before when she began her regular reading of a journal and realised how far she had come in terms of her knowledge and confidence. She presented her talk and was amazed at the positive response that she gained from the audience. She took up the suggestion from one of the journal editors who was at the conference to write up her study and it was subsequently published. A new role had been created for her in her practice, that of senior practitioner, with a specialist role in child care and education.

The other way of deepening and broadening your knowledge is by attending a conference or a study day. Details of such conferences may be circulated to your practices; they also appear in the journals. A study day tends to have a specific focus with identified learning outcomes. This may be skills such as impression taking or dental hygiene. Conferences tend to have a wider perspective such as the developing role of the dental nurse or a dental care symposium. Conferences allow time for people to meet each other, discuss issues and exchange ideas. Some conferences are only one day, while others may be two or three days. Consider the third case study of Jenny (case study 3).

You can see from the various case studies of Jenny that she took an active and positive approach to her professional development. Her aim was to develop an advanced nursing role building on her nursing skills, but moving on to develop new skills and new levels of responsibility. The above summary of those 5 years make it all seem very simple. However, 5 years of anyone’s life is never that simple or straightforward. I have not mentioned the difficulties and other pressures that she had in those 5 years; her mother died, she moved home, passed her driving test and all the ordinary parts of life that cause stress. However, Jenny was focussed and determined in her career aspirations. As she matured she seemed to be able to cope with academic study in ways that she had not been able to at school. She had learnt better study skills. Because she was interested in her subject and could apply it to her clinical work, she seemed to flourish and achieved some good marks. As her knowledge grew so did her confidence.

How similar are you to Jenny? Have you an ambition regarding your future career? It is hard work and it does take determination, but ask yourself these two questions. If I work hard and follow my ambition, where will I be in 5 years time? Then ask yourself, where will I be in 5 years time if I don’t have an ambition and don’t work hard to follow it?

Advancing your practice is not necessarily about gaining promotion. For many people, it is about doing a job that you enjoy and doing it well. It is about keeping up to date with the recent developments in dental nursing and being part of your profession’s development. The next article in this series explores how you can develop your leadership skills.

‘The other way of deepening and broadening your knowledge is by attending a conference or study day’

Author: MA Healthcare