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Workforce recruitment issues

What can the GDC's monthly registrant reports offer strategic dental nurse workforce planning?

British Dental Journal volume 235, pages 402–403 (2023)Cite this article

Key points

  • In July 2023, the number of dental nurses registered with the GDC continues to rise, with an increasing shift back toward the previous 2021 peak.

  • The NHS are set to increase the commissioned training of dental therapists and other clinicians but, at present, are not intending to increase the commissioned training of dental nurses by a corresponding number.

  • The 'crisis' within the dental workforce has the potential to be mitigated through comprehensive and strategic workforce planning.

Since early 2020, the term 'recruitment crisis' started to appear in the popular press, used as a cover-all term to define the inability to recruit and retain registered dental nurses within some areas of the dental workforce.1,2,3

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References

  1. Evans D, Burns L, Mills I, Bryce M, Hanks S. Recruitment and retention in dentistry in the UK: a scoping review to explore the challenges across the UK, with particular interest in rural and coastal areas. Br Dent J 2023; DOI: 10.1038/s41415-022-5406-0.

  2. Financial Times. Dentists warm of looming recruitment crisis in UK. 2020. Available at https://www.ft.com/content/fca7362c-dee3-4158-8486-88f248f41716 (accessed August 2023).

  3. Dental Nursing. The Recruitment Crisis. 2021. Available at https://www.dental-nursing.co.uk/features/the-recruitment-crisis (accessed August 2023).

  4. General Dental Council. Registration Reports. Available at https://www.gdc-uk.org/about-us/what-we-do/the-registers/registration-reports (accessed August 2023).

  5. Chartered Institute for Personnel Development. Strategic Workforce Planning. Available at https://www.cipd.org/en/knowledge/guides/strategic-workforce-planning/ (accessed August 2023).

  6. Chartered Institute for Personnel Development. Workforce Planning Factsheet. Available at https://www.cipd.org/uk/knowledge/factsheets/workforce-planning-factsheet/#what-is-workforce-planning (accessed August 2023).

  7. UK Government. Securing the future workforce supply: Dental care professional stocktake. 2014. Available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/stocktake-of-the-dental-care-professionals-workforce (accessed August 2023).

  8. Health Education England. The future oral and dental workforce for England: Liberating human resources to serve the population across the life-course. 2019. Available at https://www.hee.nhs.uk/sites/default/files/documents/FDWF%20Report%20-%207th%20March%202019.pdf (accessed August 2023).

  9. Eaton K A. Oral healthcare workforce planning in post-Brexit Britain. Br Dent J 2020; 228: 750-752.

  10. Westgarth G. The dental workforce: An assessment of the recruitment market. BDJ In Pract 2022; 35: 14-15.

  11. British Association of Dental Nurses. Dental Nurse Recruitment and Retention Survey. Available at https://www.badn.org.uk/NewPublic/News/Dental-Nurse-Recruitment-and-Retention-Survey.aspx (accessed August 2023).

  12. Committee of Postgraduate Dental Deans and Directors. Oral Health Educator Conference 1 June 2023: NHS Recovery Plan for NHS Dentistry and Its Implications. 2023.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Reader (Associate Professor) and Director of Advanced and Specialist Healthcare, University of Kent, UK

    Debbie Reed

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  1. Debbie Reed
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Correspondence to Debbie Reed.

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Reed, D. What can the GDC's monthly registrant reports offer strategic dental nurse workforce planning?. Br Dent J 235, 402–403 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6277-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41415-023-6277-8

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