Students will be helped to develop an improved understanding of professionalism and the standards required of them and will be given guidance on how to put patients’ interests first.
Entitled ‘Student professionalism and fitness to practise’, the suite of resources for students, patients and education and training providers published on October 14, offers practical advice and guidance – including where to go for additional support – to help dental students achieve the level of professionalism expected once they join the dental register. This offers dental students the best start in their career as a dental professional.
This is the first revision since 2010, reflecting changes in the profession and the need to provide information that is relevant to students, patients and education providers.
As well as students, the documents support patients who receive care or treatment from students by explaining what it means to be treated by a student and reassures them regarding the quality and standard of care. They also support training providers in their role in developing professionalism and monitoring the performance of their students.
This forms a wider piece of work to reform dental regulation with a focus on prevention. Students will be the dental professionals in the future, engaging and supporting them at the early stages in their dental career will help to embed the dental standards.
The documents complement ‘Standards for the dental team’ – which are the core set of expected behaviours and attitudes for all dental professionals.
Commenting on the guidance, Ian Brack, chief executive of the General Dental Council, said: “The GDC wants to help student dental professionals understand their responsibilities in relation to patient safety and patients’ interests as well as preparing them to be registered dental professionals.
“Students of the different dental professions are expected to take responsibility for meeting certain standards, demonstrate appropriate attitudes and behaviour and when something goes wrong, a recognition of the issue and responding in the right way to put it right.
“The work we are doing with students forms part of wider plan to reform dental regulation. By focusing on dental students, ensuring that the standards we expect from all registered dental professionals are truly embedded, we aim to prevent fitness to practise cases arising in the future.”