Dental Tribune United Kingdom Edition

B oth Stephen Lambert- Humble and Angie McBain’s services to dentistry have undoubtedly had a positive impact with helping the role of DCPs gain both rec- ognition and support through- out the profession. Stephen’s contribution to DCPs began through teaching dental nurs- es and hygienists at what was then the Navy’s dental train- ing School before he became an examiner for the National Exam Board for Dental Nurses (NEBDN); he has also writ- ten and produced numerous dental nursing education pro- grammes. Angie, after working her way through various coun- cil and presidential positions, not only wrote the first founda- tion degree for dental nurses, which was a big step forward for the education of dental nurses, but also wrote modules for the first dental nurse quali- fication in Dubai, helping raise the profile of dental nurses. She is, without doubt, an ambassa- dor for dental nurses through her past posts in the British Association of Dental Nurses (BADN) and her current post in the East of England Deanery. But the road to change hasn’t been an easy one. The position of the DCP in the dental team has been over- looked for many years. In the past a dental nurse was seen as somebody who cleared up after the dentist, whilst a hygienist was there to clean the patient’s mouth and a therapist was an extended school dental nurse. As Angie said, dental nurses were the “Cinderella’s of the dental team, they were the non-professional that assisted everyone else” and for years no one seemed to be pushing the DCP role further. What’s more, due to a lack in registration, dental nurses were given little respect and their perception in the dental team hardly reflect- ed their work. “I felt for a long time that DCPs were undervalued and underused within the profes- sion,” Stephen explained: “It wasn’t until around 1980 dental care professionals (or dental auxilliaries as they were called at that time) were mentioned in the first Nuffield report and it was 1993 before there was a second Nuffield report, which spoke about an expansion of therapists and a proper role for clinical dental technicians. “It wasn’t until registration for DCPs was introduced that dental nurses became hugely professional, with hygien- ists dealing with periodontal disease and therapists being permitted to treat adults and perform a huge amount of straightforward dentistry.” Of course, receiving profes- sional recognition was a huge step forward for DCPs, but it was only just the beginning. “Getting professional recog- nition of dental nurses was wonderful,” Angie said, “but the ultimate goal was patient protection and delivering high quality patient care; that’s what registration is all about, and a by-product of that is to get pro- fessional recognition.” As changes in registration were established throughout the profession, it soon became apparent that education was playing a vital role in continu- ing the change of the role of the DCP. Programmes such as DNSTART and DNART, which were written by Stephen and produced by Smile-on in con- junction with KSS Deanery, were having a dramatic impact on DCPs and it is believed that DNART, which was access to registration training, helped more than 10,000 dental nurses to get on the DCP register. Education The role that education has played in implementing these changes saw Stephen, who as the Postgraduate Dean for Kent Surrey and Sussex (KSS) is also the National Lead Dean for DCPs, become the driving force behind programmes such as DNNET, which was also de- veloped by Smile-on and KSS. The programme not only pro- vides the full curriculum for all dental nurse examinations, but also provides a huge quantity of verifiable CPD for their further education. Another historic change within the profession has been with Clinical Dental Techni- cians (CDT). In response to the introduction of the DCP register in 2008 and a train- ing course set up by Stephen, who has helped see more than 200 CDTs get on to the GDC register, the once illegal ac- tivity of CDTs has been trans- formed into a true clinical pro- fession. The National Examin- ing Board for Dental Nurses (NEBDN) has also made some modern changes, moving from the old traditional qualifica- tion to a new qualification and new diploma. With registration this change has opened up av- enues in the form of founda- tions degrees and BScs in Pri- mary Dental Care (the first BSc was set up by Stephen at the University of Kent) and as An- gie explained, there’s also the City and Guild Diploma, which comes equipped with appren- ticeship funding (an area that has always been an issue for dental nurse education). For Angie, the honour of her MBE will help continue the path of gaining recognition and respect for DCPs: “For me it’s a huge recognition to the BADN, for Barnfield College and for dental nursing as a whole”, she said. “There are a lot of people who have played a part in all of this, like Alex Baxter (from the East of England Deanery), Pat Harle and Paula Sleight (both BADN Past Presidents) and Pam Swain (BADN chief executive). “Even though I’m not a council member I still have a role to play for the Association. I will continue to be an Ambas- sador for both BADN and dental nursing as a whole. I still work for the East of England Dean- ery and Barnfield College and although education is challeng- ing, it’s rewarding and I’ll con- tinue to develop things for the East of England and contribute nationally wherever I can.” Future change With regards to the future role of DCPs Stephen believes that we’re going to see another ex- plosion of change: “I believe that with the Department of Health emphasising preven- tion in the new dental contract, dental nurses who have under- taken additional training can play a big part in improving patient’s health. I also see the role of the hygienist and thera- pist expanding so they are able, in some circumstances, to see patients before they go to see a dentist. For clinical dental technicians, I think there will be changes too, with them not only being able to see edentu- lous patients without them first seeing a dentist, but also den- tate patients, again in certain circumstances” For Angie, her plan is sim- ple: “I just want to see genuine respect and true recognition by other members of the den- tal team towards the dental nurse. There are a lot of people out there in the dental team that truly appreciate what a dental nurse does, but unfor- tunately there are still some who don’t.” DT A day of recognition for DCP champions Dental Tribune speaks to Professor Stephen Lambert-Humble and Angie McBain about their contribution to the dental profession and their recognition in the New Years Honours’ List Angie McBain Prof Stephen Lambert-Humble January 16-22, 20128 Feature United Kingdom Edition