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Posted by: Dental Design 28th February 2022

Childhood and early adulthood are filled with learning. Increasing knowledge, broadening horizons, and stretching our minds was all in a day’s work whether it be at school, college, or university. Upon entering the world of work, education can often take a back seat as we prioritise executing the job at hand and tackling any challenges the day throws at us. COVID-19 has certainly presented plenty of challenges for dental professionals to concentrate on over these past 18 months.

But working and learning can and should go hand in hand. Studies show that undergoing additional development can not only result in an increased performance in one’s role, [i] but it can also improve job satisfaction, morale, and motivation. ⁱ Therefore, ongoing education is clearly a key driver for the clinician in the pursuit of a happy, fulfilling, and successful career.

Boost your career with a Personal Development Plan

Developing your Personal Development Plan (PDP) is a useful tool in helping to consolidate your learning goals and ensure you stay on track. The concept of the PDP was added as a key requirement for registrants when the Enhanced CPD scheme was introduced in 2018. It seeks to encourage dental professionals to carefully consider where they want their career to go and then create a plan for the coming years.

Create and maximise your plan

The creation of a PDP can be considered as a four-step process of continual refinement and improvement. [ii]These steps are outlined below, together with tips on how to maximise each one.

Review
To kickstart the process, it is advisable to reflect on previous learning and current performance to help identify areas for further development.
It can be useful to break your review down by topic, whether it be clinical, management, communication, or personal. [iii] Also consider your future job aspirations and any training requirements you need to achieve these.
Prepare
Evaluate what needs to be actioned and when to achieve your learning needs.
It helps to use the SMART framework: being specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound [iv] to ensure that objectives are achievable and the plan is a success. Using the terms ‘about next year’ or ‘ongoing’ is not defined enough and should be changed. ⁱⁱⁱ
Action
Carry out your pre-planned learning objectives.

There are a number of activities that can help you to achieve and maximise the completion of your objectives. These could include:

Attending regional, national, or international dental conferences to network, receive insights from expert speakers, and hear the latest updates.
Participating in suitable courses or events, whether online or in person, to learn new skills.
Completing workplace-based assessments or other forms of clinical assessment, for practical experience.
Learning from colleagues through observation or shadowing to witness treatment in action.
Completing log books of clinical work carried out, to evidence your progress.

Ensure that you keep a record of the learning produced by your provider including course notes and handouts as evidence of your attendance ⁱⁱⁱ and a useful reminder for the future.
It’s important to assess if the action adequately fulfilled your objective, and also take note as to whether it opened your eyes to any other related learning needs that can be fed into your PDP as a new objective. ⁱⁱⁱ

Outcome
All planned learning activities should be evidenced with a certificate and evaluated in terms of how it has benefitted yourself, and others.

Include a written reflection of what you have learned and how it has been applied. This is helpful to check your understanding, provide feedback to the course provider which they can factor in to subsequent sessions, and perhaps also to review your learning with a colleague so you can share your ideas and reinforce learning. ⁱⁱⁱ

Reboot your career with Rodericks Dental

Rodericks Dental understands what is needed to enhance and diversify your clinical expertise to deliver the best patient care and feel fulfilled in your career. The senior management team includes several individuals who have worked as practising clinicians and so know what dentists need to thrive. Their experience is used to create the educational advancement and career progression opportunities on offer to the full team.

Whether you’re looking to broaden your current skill-set, transition into a new discipline, or find a new role that challenges you to reach your full potential, consider joining Rodericks Dental!

Laying the foundations with learning

A solid base of clinical expertise is essential to laying the foundations of a long-lasting career and as with any structure it requires continual care and maintenance. Treat your Personal Development Plan as your checklist to make sure that no cracks begin to show in your knowledge and identify where any extensions or reinforcements are required to ensure your clinical skills and understanding remains strong both for now and the future.

For more information on the career opportunities available at Rodericks, please visit www.rodericksdentalcareers.co.uk,

or contact Ashley Lillyman at recruitment@rodericksdental.co.uk or on

01604 970988 (option 1)

#wearerodericks

[i] Elnaga, D.A., & Imran, A. (2013). The Effect of Training on Employee Performance. European Journal of Business and Management, 5, 137-147. Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/234624593.pdf. [Last accessed 08.09.2021].

[ii] Maguire, W., Blaylock, P. Preparing a personal development plan for all members of the dental team. Br Dent J 223, 402–404 (2017). Available at: https://www.nature.com/articles/sj.bdj.2017.730. [Last accessed 08.09.2021].

[iii] NHS Health Education North East. ‘A guide to personal and professional development planning’. Available at: https://madeinheene.hee.nhs.uk/Portals/13/PDPguidanceApril14inctemplate.pdf. [Last accessed 08.09.2021]

[iv] Doran, G. T. (1981). There’s a S.M.A.R.T. Way to Write Management’s Goals and Objectives. Management Review, 70, 35-36. Available at https://community.mis.temple.edu/mis0855002fall2015/files/2015/10/S.M.A.R.T-Way-Management-Review.pdf [Last accessed 18.08.2021].