Long service awards for more than 25 years of BADN membership were presented by President Hazel Coey to Janet Goodwin, Joan Hatchard and Maureen Stone at the National Dental Nursing Conference. The rest were posted out to dental nurses who have been BADN members for 25 or more years, but who were unable to attend Conference.

Hazel also presented 10 year badges to Sara Helliwell, Sapna Mandalia and Jennifer Wood, 15 year badges to Anne Hewitt and Honorary Associate Member Sophie Schneider and 5 year badges to Rebecca Silver and Sohni Malhotra. Also, the BADN Award for Exceptional Commitment as a student was given to Rebecca Silver.

Read on for more about Rebecca Silver and Maureen Stone.

Exceptional and ecstatic too

Rebecca Silver outlines her career to date.

My name is Rebecca and I have been a dental nurse for 9 years and qualified and registered with the GDC since 2012. I fell into dental nursing as a job, but little did I know that it would turn into a passion and career.

Where do I work?

I am currently employed as a specialist Dental Nurse at Waterside Dental Health in Canary Wharf in London. This is a fully private practice (with a very small NHS endodontic and periodontic contract). I have been here for 5 years and work with the specialists in; endodontics, periodontics, orthododontics, prosthodontics and occasionally oral surgery. I am also the trained sedation Dental Nurse so I will also assist with sedation procedures when I am needed.

Whilst here I have obtained post certificate qualification in Conscious Sedation and also a Foundation Degree with Distinction in Advanced Dental Nursing from the University of Kent.

Why have I been recognised?

I would like to think that I have been recognised due to the fact that I have a passion for learning and for excelling in anything I do.

I have gained

  1. 1

    Oral Health Education Certificate

  2. 2

    Conscious Sedation Certificate

  3. 3

    Foundation Degree in Advanced Dental Nursing with Distinction

  4. 4

    Dental Nurse of the Year South 2018 - Dental Awards

  5. 5

    BADN Exceptional Commitment as a Dental Nurse Student 2018

  6. 6

    Best Dental Nurse London 2018 - Dentistry awards

I always try and attend the yearly BADN conference and have made some great life long friends.

I won Dental Nurse of the Year South in May 2018, and as mentioned previously, gained a degree in Advanced Dental Nursing. This is still a new qualification. I enjoy my job immensely and I think this shows through with my passion for anything to do with dentistry!

How do I feel?

Ecstatic!

That’s the only way to describe it. Having my commitment to the profession recognised by the BADN is a great feeling. They are an association that really cares about it members, and I feel proud that they have recognised me. Here’s to another 5!

HIV, OHE, Destiny and me

Maureen Stone looks back on a quarter century during which she, supported by the BADN, has contributed to making dental nursing ever more professional and rewarding

My career in dentistry came about by accident, or perhaps it was destiny! I had worked for 10 years in a hospital infection control/isolation unit nursing some of the first patients with AIDS. Within the hospital there was a dental clinic for the treatment of blood borne diseases/special needs. Their existing dental nurse left very abruptly and as I had limited dental experience, I was invited to apply to join the team.

This clinic became inundated with many more patients suffering with very sore raw mouths, Kaposi’s Sarcoma and Pneumocystis Carinii, which we learned later signified the conversion of HIV to AIDS.

Working in this special clinic was to become the most challenging but rewarding role I had in my career. Many of our patients were generally very sick and some we visited and treated them in the specialist ward in Oxford’s Churchill Hospital. We had a regular theatre slot for our patients.

Witnessing the great loss of young lives, which included hundreds of haemophiliacs, was a learning curve for me. I saw at first hand the terrible prejudices that many of these patients had to suffer. Thankfully, I like to think we have become a more educated, tolerant society, and, of course, we now have a greater understanding of the conditions and treatments available.

During my time in this clinic, I worked with many interesting groups of patients. One particular group that comes to mind was the Multiple Sclerosis patients trialling cannabis whose mouths we checked. We also treated patients with Oral Cancer, Motor Neurone disease and other long-term health problems, including skeletal and metabolic disorders. I have always had more than one job and most of the time at least 3!

Other roles I trained for and undertook were:

  • An OHE qualification

  • Dental Nursing tutor

  • Training advisor

  • NVQ assessor

Alongside these roles, I worked for the National Examination Board for Dental Nurses for many years. I worked with other tutors within the City and Guilds organisation to bring about the National Diploma.

During my time with the local FE College, I happened upon my next passion. When interviewing prospective students, I found many of them had failed their Dental Nursing exam, some many times. They were set some basic tests and through these and discussion it became apparent that most of them had special educational needs. My next learning curve was to support students with Dyslexia and Dyspraxia; this group of very capable and intelligent students were being let down by teaching methods that did not match their style of learning. Nowadays I am very proud to see many of my ex-students working in general practice, in community and in hospital, many in senior posts.

My clinical work has always been in hospital oral surgery departments. The last hospital I worked for was Stoke Mandeville Hospital in Buckinghamshire; it was a very enjoyable part of my career, working as a Senior Nurse with a professional, caring and dedicated team.

During the build-up to the General Dental Council’s Compulsory Registration of Dental Nurses I worked for the Oxford Deanery. My colleague Hazel Coey and I devised a programme for the Thames Valley area to make this transition as seamless as possible. Our programme of study and a short exam enabled very experienced nurses to be registered and to continue to work in their practices.

My next role with HEE was as a Dental Tutor/Practice facilitator in Buckinghamshire. In addition to supporting dental practices with day-to-day running and regulation, I planned and supported postgraduate training, running suitable courses at Stoke Mandeville Hospital Post Graduate Centre. The other aspect of my role was teaching Dental Nursing at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

This new world of Dentistry requires us all to be professional, accountable and open to the future. I am proud to say that over the last quarter of a century, everything I have done in my career, fully supported by the BADN, has kept me looking forward, training to deliver the service that my profession and our patients need.