How to Survive Dental Performance Difficulties

How to Survive Dental Performance Difficulties offers an authoritative guide for successfully navigating and overcoming dental performance issues.

• Offers a practical guide for preventing and overcoming dental performance issues
• Highlights case studies of dental professionals who have direct experience of being referred for fitness to practise issues
• Includes information on the support available to dental professionals, the requirements that need to be met, and how to meet them
• Contains information on the effective use of evidence, improvement practice tools such as personal development plans, continuing professional education, reflective diaries, and audits
• Offers guidance on how to increase self-awareness and insight

Foreword, ix

Acknowledgements, xi

Abbreviations, xiii

Chapter 1 The basics of performance, 1

Introduction, 1

What is performance? 3

What is poor performance? 6

Fitness to practise, 9

Red door/green door, 10

Chapter 2 Background and contributory factors: How performance issues can arise, 13

Introduction, 13

Pressures on dentists, 14

Factors that underpin poor performance, 15

Chapter 3 Professionalism, 27

What is professionalism? 27

What does professionalism encompass? 30

How should a professional behave? 30

Societal expectations of professionals, 31

Character, 32

Building blocks of character, 33

Ethical frameworks within which professionals operate, 34

How does character relate to professionalism? 36

Tests of integrity, 36

Virtue ethics, 37

Honesty and dishonesty, 38

Communication, 42

Criminal record, convictions and cautions, 43

Scotland, 45

Protected conviction or caution, 45

Chapter 4 Regulation of dentistry and dental professionals, 48

Regulation, 48

General Medical Council, 49

General Pharmaceutical Council, 50

General Dental Council, 50

Registration, 51

NHS England, 52

Care Quality Commission, 53

Healthcare Inspectorate Wales, 54

Scotland, 54

Northern Ireland, 55

Professional Standards Authority, 56

Regulation of Dental Services Programme Board, 57

Health and Safety Executive, 58

Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, 59

Right‐touch regulation, 60

Chapter 5 Organisations that play a supporting role, 63

Specialist indemnity providers, 63

Educational support, 64

Health support, 67

Mentoring/professional support, 68

Advisory support, 69

Conclusion, 70

Chapter 6 The anatomy of a fitness to practise case, 72

Introduction, 72

Fitness to practise, 74

General Dental Council, 74

Fitness to practise process, 75

Interim Orders Committee, 77

Investigating Committee, 77

Practice Committees, 78

Sanctions, 78

Convictions/cautions, 82

Analysis, 83

Erasure, 86

Conclusion, 91

Chapter 7 The registrant’s journey, personal statements and case studies, 93

How it can begin, 94

The Hero’s Journey, 95

Case studies, 101

Stages of change or grief, 111

Taking a preventive approach, 113

Chapter 8 Building self‐awareness and insight, 115

Self‐awareness, 116

Insight, 116

Learning styles, 119

Tools to deepen self‐awareness, 124

Conclusion, 138

Chapter 9 Tools that can help, 140

Personal development plan, 141

Peer review, 144

Professional discussion and dialogue, 144

Case studies and presentations, 145

Clinical audit, 146

Staff meetings, 148

Patient surveys (feedback), 148

360° multisource feedback, 150

Standards, national guidelines, 151

Working with a mentor, 151

Working with a coach, 152

Appendix A Personal development plan template, 154

Appendix B Patient engagement questionnaire, 156

Appendix C Influencing skills questionnaire – 360° colleague feedback, 157

Chapter 10 Supporting colleagues who struggle, 160

Being non‐judgemental, 160

Listening, 160

Paraphrasing, 161

Questioning, 161

Guiding, 161

Reflective practice/writing and learning, 161

Working one to one, 172

Force field analysis, 176

Neurological levels, 177

Conclusion, 181

Index, 183

JANINE BROOKS MBE, DMedEth, MSc, FFGDP(UK), MCDH, DDPHRCS, BDS, FAcadMEd, is a Lead Clinical Tutor at the University of Bristol; Educational Inspector for the General Dental Council; Trustee of the Dentists' Health Support Trust; Coach for the Professional Support Unit, Thames Valley; CEO of Dentalia Coaching and Training Consultancy; Director of the Dental Coaching Academy and co-founder of Dental Mentors UK.

how to

survive dental performance difficulties

How to Survive Dental Performance Difficulties offers an authoritative guide for successfully navigating and overcoming dental performance issues. This practical manual takes a preventative approach, outlining the factors that are most likely to lead to fitness to practise issues with clear explanations of how these issues can be avoided. The book also thoroughly describes the fitness to practise processes and reviews all the major dental organisations involved in the performance process within the United Kingdom, detailing their role and function.

The book provides the essential information needed, should you or a colleague find yourself the subject of a GDC or local investigation, and will also be of help to those who support professionals under investigation, whether with a regulator or commissioning organisation. The author draws on her experience working with performance issues and developing dental training programmes for coaches, mentors, educational supervisors, trainers, and appraisers to offer a concise and useful reference for dental professionals. This important resource:

• Offers a practical guide for preventing and overcoming dental performance issues
• Highlights case studies of dental professionals who have direct experience of being referred for fitness to practise issues
• Includes information on the support available to dental professionals, the requirements that need to be met, and how to meet them
• Contains information on the effective use of evidence, improvement practice tools such as personal development plans, continuing professional education, reflective diaries, and audits
• Offers guidance on how to increase self-awareness and insight

Written for dental professionals and non-dental professionals in a supportive role, How to Survive Dental Performance Difficulties is a compassionate and practical guide to working through the often complex and daunting fitness to practise process.