Continuing education is something that all dental professionals do every year. There are continuing education classes that your team members will attend each year as well. How do you utilize the information gained in these courses? How do you implement it into the practice? In addition, are you training your team regularly to increase their knowledge base and skillset outside of continuing education courses that you all attend? There should be a consistent learning curve that is established in dental practices. How do we do that? How do we make time for that?
Continuing education is a requirement for dental licenses and hygiene licenses. It is also a requirement for DANB certified dental assistants. But, what value is that continuing education bringing to the practice? Well, if it is not discussed and implemented into the practice, it is of no value at all! Any time a dentist or team member attends continuing education courses, it should be discussed at a team meeting. At that meeting, the team member that attended the CE should talk about what they learned and how it can be utilized in the practice and what each team member needs to know in order to do that. Once we have all of the information and understand how it can add value to the practice and for the patients, we then have to create an implementation plan. What does the implementation timeline look like, who will be responsible for ensuring the team is following set guidelines, do we need more equipment or supplies to implement this new knowledge or service? We must have a point person to oversee implementation, or it simply will not happen. It does not make sense to invest in continuing education and then not implement it to improve the practice and patient experience.
In addition to continuing education, we should always support and encourage our team members to increase their knowledge and skillset. This may seem like something that there is not time for, especially in a busy practice, but there is time where you make it. It has to be put on the schedule. A chosen time can be selected where it does not halt production or cause an inconvenience for the team. Place it on the schedule and stick to it! It must be made a priority or it will not happen. A designated area for the training should also be setup with all of the necessary items for the training. This will accomplish two things. One, it sets the team member up for success to have all necessary items for the training easily accessible. Secondly, it indicates to the rest of the team that the team member is training and should not be interrupted. Often, the training may be the same for all team members. Regardless of whether the training is the same, or different, it should be discussed at a team meeting. Every person has their own perception of things, so it should be discussed as a group so that everyone is on the same page. This is crucial because we should always be providing a congruent message to the patients. If we are not on the same page and are all giving the patients different information, it will seem as if the team is not communicating with one another and that can make a patient lose confidence in the team and practice. So, discuss the information, get clarity on how to present it and how it will be beneficial to the patient and make a plan for implementation.
Whether it be required Continuing Education or ongoing training within the practice, there must be a plan for implementation and someone in charge of executing that plan. It may be your Practice Manager or someone else, but a designated team member must oversee the implementation or it will not happen. Discuss the value it can bring to the practice and how it can add to patient care or service. Decide who on the team will provide the care or service…this could be the entire team or it may be just hygiene or just the dentist. Then put your action plan in place. Have check-ins to ensure the team is putting the plan into action. That may look like a checklist or just a check-in during the morning huddle. Whatever works best based on the situation. Utilize all of the knowledge your team has to better each individual team member, the practice and the patient experience!
