Job overview

We are looking for talented Qualified Dental Nurses to work as part of a team providing essential out of hours emergency dental care to patients. This will include assisting chairside as well as a high level of clinical assessment and pharmacy/analgesic advice

Undertake definitive clinical telephone assessment (triage) of patients with dental symptoms.
Triage patient calls using the SDCEP guidance.
Be proficient in the use of all dental equipment including all performance checks and identifying maintenance issues.
Set up and close down of surgeries following infection control guidelines.
Make available fine instruments and materials for clinical use, have a thorough knowledge of all instruments, equipment and materials used. Constantly having to interpret the needs of both patients and clinicians and be able to deal with them promptly and efficiently. 
Assist the Dental Officer with the patient care including suction, mixing materials and passing instruments. This requires manipulation of fine tools and materials which will be contaminated throughout the procedure, passing of sharps between the Dental Officer and the nurse.

Main duties of the job

• To provide definitive clinical telephone assessment (triage) of patients
• To provide chair side Dental Nurse support to the dentists delivering emergency pain treatment
• To provide decontamination and infection control duties and ensure all areas are cleaned and sterilised in accordance with HTM01-5 regulations during Out of Hours sessions

Working for our organisation

We have a skilled and dedicated workforce of over 5000 colleagues working in a diverse range of services over 55 sites and within people’s homes. We strive to enable a welcoming workplace culture that builds and celebrates civility, inclusivity and diversity, while providing a sense of belonging and trust.

Annual staff surveys, regular Pulse surveys and other engagement opportunities provide our people with lots of opportunity to tell us about their experiences of working with us.  In the latest staff survey, 61% of colleagues gave us their views.  It was great to hear that:

• 72% of colleagues would recommend the Trust as a place to work, ranking us 1st for Provider Trusts in the South West region on this question.
• 76% would recommend the standard of care provided in our services if a friend or relative needed treatment, also ranking us 1st in the South West region.
• 81% said that care of patients and service users is the Trust’s priority, compared with an average in comparable NHS Trusts in England of 64%

This high-level overview shows we are in a healthy position, with higher scores than average for comparable organisations, alongside a great response rate, indicating good staff engagement.  However, we also know we have plenty of room for improvement in many areas. To that end, we continue to prioritise and invest in our commitment to genuinely becoming a Great Place to Work with consistent top-quartile performance in the annual staff survey and Pulse surveys.