BADN Presidential Column by Jacqui Elsden, President 2019-2022

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What a long hot summer that was? Personally, I enjoyed the hot summer days and warm summer nights, but my vegetable garden and greenhouse didn't! Despite the soaring temperatures we did manage to produce a steady flow of salad crops and vegetables to the table! The reason for stating all of this is because I have started to reuse all my family's toothbrushes as bird scarers. Simply strung across the veg patch in rows, they have been successful in keeping the birds away from eating my crops!

Talking of summer, I wanted to take this opportunity to explain that BADN has continued to support dental nurses across the summer months - answering queries , signposting to services and resolving issues both in personal and professional spheres, just in the same way that BADN has been proudly supporting dental nurses since 1940.

At BADN we believe that becoming a member is much more than simply joining a professional association, because you want much more than that. Our membership packages are designed to support you, not only in your professional life but in your personal life too. We know that you need CPD, therefore you can find eight hours of CPD in your quarterly Journal each year together with access to back issues if you fall short at any time. We know that you need dental nurse specific indemnity insurance, therefore we provide access to a dental nurse indemnity scheme (available to members only and not included in your BADN membership fees); and we know you need to save money, therefore we can offer you a comprehensive package of BADN Rewards. These are money-off or discounted prices on products or services ranging from eye care and medical insurance to financial and wellbeing advice to travel and family days out; and even on everyday products such as insoles, toiletries, books for study, training courses and wholesale stores.

I mentioned the Journal earlier on. This is included in your membership fee and is called the British Dental Nurses' Journal and is published quarterly in January/February, April/May, July/August and October/November. It is available exclusively for members of the Association and it carries news stories and personal stories together with CPD articles. There's plenty to keep you up to date.

Any indemnity insurance you buy once joining us is not included in your membership fees. It remains completely separate; therefore, you are free to shop around for the best deals if you wish. However, we have worked in conjunction with our long-term member benefits provider Parliament Hill Limited and Trafalgar Risk Management (TRM) to provide BADN members with access to the opportunity to take out professional dental nurse indemnity at a preferential rate from the insurer. There are three types of cover: basic duties, extra duties, and maternity cover. This is available to full time, part-time and maternity membership tiers.

In addition to the material benefits in joining a professional association, the professional network you are entering is also worth mentioning. It's the human factor, the people, the colleagues, the dental nurses with whom you form great friendships, share experiences, highs and lows, in times of celebration or great need. You don't realise it at first but it's there: you will soon discover the BADN community. A network of dental nurses from across the UK, striving hard to be the best they can with the support of BADN in their back pocket in the form of one of those yellow membership cards!

For more information about BADN, please head over to the website www.badn.org.uk or if you wish to get in touch please contact us at enquiries@BADN.org.uk or call 01253 338366.