We recommend that you enrol your trainee as soon as they have completed their probationary period with you which is normally 3 months. We believe that trainees and employers need this time to make sure that you are happy working together and that you make a good team and then the trainee should be enrolled to begin the next available course with us. In our opinion it is a disadvantage to leave a trainee up to 2 years with no formal training and you risk the trainee moving on to another position elsewhere.
GDC Guidance states:
Before appointing an individual to work as a trainee, you should ensure the individual is capable of enrolling on a course recognised for registration
- You should identify appropriate courses leading to registration.
- You should allow and require the trainee to enrol on a recognised programme, and meet the obligations that are required of it.
- You should identify a supervising GDC registrant and ensure they carry out the necessary supervision in accordance with this guidance.
- You should facilitate and support the trainee to complete the programme.
GDC registrants who employ, manage and/or supervise students/trainees risk fitness to practise proceedings if they fail to comply with this guidance or with the Standards for the dental team.
For the diploma course we need a completed application form for the trainee dental nurse and the £385 enrolment fee. We will then send the practice a certificate of enrolment to prove the staff member is enrolled with an accredited course provider. This can be kept in their staff folder should CQC wish to see proof that they are registered for training . We will then contact the employer and student just before the course begins to start the paperwork process and organise the payment for the course. The course will be paid in full by the start date. All of our inductions are carried out via teams with the trainee and a member of management at the practice to ensure everything is fully understood before training commences.
Applications for the post certificate courses need to be completed and returned to us with full payment for the relevant course. We will then contact the student and employer to arrange the rest of the paperwork. Full enrolment and access to our lectures and the NEBDN’s pebblepad platform to begin the Record of competencies (ROC’S) can take up to 28 days but students can start courses within a week or two of application. Flexible payment options for self funding students are available upon request.
All the NEBDN courses we provide requires trainees/students to complete and record work carried out in clinical practice where they are employed.
A set amount of day to day clinical experiences are recorded by a student onto the NEBDN platform pebblepad. This is called a record of experience (ROE) for the diploma and a record of competency (ROC) for the post certificate courses.
The procedures they record need to be witnessed by a GDC registered member of the dental team. You are not restricted to one witness per student for the entire course, you can have multiple witnesses per student per course. We advise that you think about your own practice dynamics and how it will best work for you. So for example if you have a GDC registered sterilisation nurse, they could witness the trainee carry out all the sterilisation procedures. A dental hygienist can witness a topical fluoride application, an OHE qualified dental nurse can witness an OHE trainee give an OHE session (proof of qualification required).
This means a busy clinician is not committed to witnessing all procedures that other members of the dental team can do instead. All witnesses must read and understand the NEBDN witness guidance that will be provided by us before the students training commences. The NEBDN no longer require witnesses to undertake the formal training and obtain a certificate that has been required in previous years.
The National Examining Board of Dental Nurses (NEBDN) require each witness to read and fully understand the witness toolkit. It is accepted that witnesses are all registered dental professionals, by reading this document witnesses accept they understand their role in that students training and take responsibility when they witness them in practice.
We do not recommend a set amount of surgery time for any trainee. A trainee dental nurse must spend some time working in a clinical setting, not just observing another dental nurse but building up real experiences. The allocated surgery time depends on the hours that person works and their ability and speed to learn new things.
The practice should organise the correct amount of surgery time needed based on that person, it is not possible to complete the ROE if the trainee is only working on reception or in an office.
Your trainee can work in surgery before starting our course, in fact we encourage and advise that they do so. However you must comply with the GDC guidelines when employing a trainee dental nurse.
The NEBDN are the awarding body of the qualification, they provide all elements of the final written and OSCE examinations. They have their own separate policies regarding refunds and they do not offer refunds once they have processed your member of staffs data. This paperwork can be processed up to two months before the start of the course, Please contact us at your earliest convenience if you need to withdraw a member of your team from starting training with us.
Yes, We can offer an interest free plan to suit your needs for any course that you enrol on. Please email us at erica@dentalnurse.training with you enquiry and a rough idea of what payments you can manage and we will get back to you.
No, There is no funding currently for the diploma in dental nursing.
There are many benefits training through this route. It allows flexibility for your trainee to access the lectures around their working hours at a steady pace. This means an employer does not lose the member of staff during working hours and the trainee also gets the benefit of consistency during their working day. The duration of the diploma is a year as opposed to other routes that can take longer, sometimes up to two years to complete.
Trainee dental nurses that train with us must be allowed time in work to complete their ROE on a regular basis and be provided with adequate support.
GDC guidance states “The trainee dental nurse or technician must not undertake exposure-prone procedures until they have the appropriate vaccinations (if applicable) as required to practice.”
This can be further clarified by contacting your practice indemnity provider.