The 10th of May was quite a day! Ana Maria and I always arrive early, ready for the day ahead. Impression workbooks – check; pens – check; croissants – check; coffee – check; impression materials all here – phew! First possible crisis – not a crisis. We greet all the delegates, ensuring that we give them name tags. By 9:30am, we are fuelled with coffee and ready to go.
Rachel (an extended duties nurse and qualified adult lifelong learning teacher) gets up to introduce herself and the day, and to talk about all the theory and a wee bit of interesting science.
By 11am the nurses are ready to take the alginate impressions. The nurses are grouped and given dental chairs and units to practise on. Taking impressions can look quite easy, and the nurses always find out that this is not necessarily the case – but practice makes perfect. By 1pm we are eating and drinking and refuelling for the next session.
The afternoon starts with a short presentation followed by silicone impression-taking. At some point the alarm goes off and my first thought is “Should I grab my stuff?” My next thought is “I need to lead the team of nurses to the allocated meeting point”. Thankfully, it’s not raining.
We soon find out that it is a real fire alarm and we are not able to go back into the building to get our coats. I am extremely concerned, but thankfully all the nurses are in such good spirits that there is absolutely no need to worry! I speak to the fireman to ask if I should just send the delegates home, and he says he will let me know in ten minutes.
That flaming person who left their food in the oven overnight (I later found out)! Ten minutes later, the fireman confirms that it is OK to enter. Yay, because it was freezing outside!
We all go inside just as it starts to pour with rain outside. The nurses begin their practice sessions, taking 2-step putty impressions using a spacer. They start by taking a special tray and then using the wash to get all the fine detail needed for a high-spec impression.
This is one of my favourite courses to attend as the delegates love learning such hands-on skills that will allow them to treat patients directly. Once they complete their Record Of Experience Portfolio they gain their Competency Certificate and can work unsupervised, taking impressions for all sorts of different appliances. Delegates also get access to a library of information and videos, post-course tutor support and CPD updates to show they are continuing to develop themselves as impression-taking nurses. I always say to the nurses that they need to aim to be better than their dentists – so it’s not about just one day of learning, but about continual learning – and it’s really important that they constantly reflect on their work.
This course gets rated very highly by delegates. Between 85%-90% of delegates will consider the course to have a standard of excellence. Not just very good – excellent! Delegates always send us kind messages, and it’s always interesting to chat after the course and see how their new-found skills are being utilised. I got a documentary photographer in on the 10th to document the day so that I could share the pictures with you all. I hope to see you at the next date!
Many thanks to you all and our Amazing Sponsors Henry Schein & GC Europe.
Best wishes,
Mars
