Dental Nurse

Job overview

King’s College Hospital’s Department of Community Special Care Dentistry is split into 3 geographical Lots and covers the boroughs of Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, Merton Sutton and Croydon, Kingston and Richmond and Wandsworth. The main roles of our service are:

• physical disability
• complex medical condition
• learning disability
• severe mental health condition
• Severe anxiety/phobia.
• Children with complex dental needs

• The monitoring of the dental health of all age groups in the population.
• The provision of dental health education and preventive programmes.
• The provision of facilities for a full range of treatment to patients who have experienced difficulty in obtaining treatment in the general dental service, or for whom there is evidence that they would not otherwise seek treatment from the general dental services. Including one or more of the following;

We also provide domiciliary care to people unable to leave their home and our mobile dental unit visits shelters for people without housing.

You would be expected to:

• Provide a high level of dental nursing care for all patients. Explain dental procedures/treatment to patients or carers
• Deliver a high standard of chairside assistance supporting all grades of clinicians. Maintaining a high level of infection control.
• Responsible for the day-to-day running of the dental clinic.
• Working across all King’s sites, whilst Dental Nurses are based in one clinic they are expected to work across multiple sites

Main duties of the job

Main Duties and Responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities

• Receiving and preparing patients for their visit; at any setting, and for any appointment type including treatment under conscious sedation.
• Assisting clinicians in the full range of dental treatment and procedures, ensuring that relevant information about the patient, including any change in his/her condition, is reported to the dentist.
• Checking patients' fitness for discharge after extractions/sedation. Providing pre and post-operative care.
• Preparation and participation in domiciliary care for elderly and patients who have difficulty in leaving their homes. Being aware of your surroundings and the property of the patient.
• Giving patients, parents or carers oral hygiene instruction and advice.
• Supporting patients with compassion and empathy throughout their dental journey.
• Processing and mounting of radiographs. To clean, maintain and test processor according to agreed procedures.
• Management of surgery clinical waste, dealing appropriately and safely with hazardous or toxic waste materials
• Disinfecting and packaging dental laboratory work and arranging collection
• Monitoring, maintaining, testing and reporting faults on equipment and medical devices including decontamination equipment

Detailed job description and main responsibilities

Administrative Responsibilities

• Undertake general reception duties including arranging transport and appointments, dealing with  complaints compassionately.
• Ordering and receipting stock for the clinic. Maintaining appropriate stock controls.
• Ordering pharmacy items and emergency drugs for the dental clinics.
• Ensuring all pharmaceutical items and emergency drugs are within expiry dates, stored at appropriate  temperatures and locations and reviewed weekly.

Operational Performance

• Acting as relief dental nurse at other clinics on occasion.
• Being an active participant in audit, daily huddles, clinic meetings, staff meetings, performance  review and training.
• Assisting in dental screening and epidemiological fieldwork in schools.
• Working with and supporting/supervising anyone visiting the clinic in a training capacity.
• Any other duties as directed, delegated or requested.

Education and Training

• Maintain statutory and mandatory training records including, Basic Life Support, Fire, Manual  Handling, Health & Safety, Infection control and Safeguarding
• Maintain up to date and accurate records of all CPD training
• Annually submits a CPD declaration to the General Dental Council; maintaining fitness to practice.
• Annually renews registration with the GDC and provides a copy of the certificate on request
• Participate in ongoing performance review.

Governance / Quality Control

• Participate in audit
• Adhere to department infection prevention control and decontamination policy and follow the uniform  policy
• Keeping your DBS certificate valid.

General

• The post holder has a general duty of care for their own health, safety and wellbeing and that of work  colleagues, visitors and patients.
• To observe the rules, policies, procedures and standards of King's College Hospital NHS  Foundation Trust together with all relevant statutory and professional obligations.
• We want to be an organization where everyone shares a commitment to delivering the very best  care and feels like their contribution is valuable and valued.
• At King’s we are a kind, respectful team:

Kind. We show compassion and understanding and bring a positive attitude to our work  Respectful. We promote equality, are inclusive and honest, speaking up when needed  Team. We support each other, communicate openly, and are reassuringly professional

• To observe and maintain strict confidentiality of personal information relating to patients and staff.
• This job description is intended as a guide to the general scope of duties and is not intended to be  definitive or restrictive. It is expected that some of the duties will change over time and this description  will be subject to review in consultation with the post holder.
• All employees must hold an 'nhs.net' email account which will be the Trust's formal route for email  communication.
• Everyone is responsible for promoting inclusion no matter their role or team. At King’s, we want to  create an environment where everyone feels valued, respected and welcomed