DentaltownUK October 2017 - 63

students

Seeing Your First Patient: A Short Guide
by Sagar Patel, BDS5, King's College London Dental School
feel about seeing a new patient, can you
guess the top answers? Stressed. Nervous.
Excited. The latter of which is definitely well
deserved considering the hurdles and exams
one must pass to see a patient. The formers
are natural. Birks et. al (2009) reported that
dental students generally tend to experience
more stress than medical students.
One reason might be due to pressure of
desiring a good professional experience with
a student's cohort of patients. Given that this
experience is starting afresh, 'diving into
unknown territory' could be the reason here.
Easier said than done, the trick is to
keep calm and keep it simple. When you
see your first patient, you know what you're
doing. You wouldn't be there if you didn't.
Try not to panic.
You might get flustered but it's about
believing in yourself. There's no harm in
preparing for a patient beforehand, and even
bringing in some notes to appointment to
help yourself. If you find that something
makes it easier for you, helping you out in the
process, go for it. Preparation and planning
is always key!
Don't forget, you're not alone. You're never
alone! You have a clinical partner. Someone
who works with you at every stage. Someone
who is in the exact same boat as you. Work
off of each other, and learn from each other.
Help each other. It'll make the experience
that much better, and you'll get more out of
it. And who knows? You might just make a
good new friend out of it all too!
If you are stuck, you also have your tutor.
They're not here to judge you or criticise you.
They're here to help you out. Whether you
want an opinion on if something is a good
idea, you want know the best way of doing
something, or even if you have a totally
unrelated question, they're the go-to people.
They've been in your shoes before, they
know what it's like, and they are there to

make you a better dentist. Don't be afraid
to ask questions, you're there to learn and
improve your skills.
Improving in many skills naturally comes
with time, time being the key word in many
respects. A major pitfall early on with seeing
your first patients is thinking that you're
very slow, and that you should be able to
do something fairly quickly.
This isn't a problem though! With
experience, over the course of the next
couple of months, and even years, you will
naturally build up speed. It will happen.
Don't overthink and stress yourself out
over this skill immediately. Work on it and
it will improve.
Another skill is communication. Treating
and curing diseases will come with time,
with experience. But words of care, comfort
and compassion are therapeutic in itself.
For over 2,500 years, the value of effective
patient-clinician communication has been
recognised (Frankel and Sherman, 2015).
Creating a healthy relationship with
a patient is also shown to reduce burnout
and play a role in the resilience of clinicians
(Dyrbye et al., 2010).
By building the relationship with patients,
your work and your dentistry will be that
much easier and that much better.
You're also surrounded by older students
in clinics, many individuals who were where
you are not so long ago. They know what it is
like to be doing a procedure for the first time.
If you want some advice, or are wondering
the best way to tackle a certain scenario,
they are people you can turn to for help too.
I've never met any older student who wasn't
more than willing to help out, providing
ideas and information that has made me
better at what I do. Sometimes it's the tips
of someone in similar shoes that makes the
biggest difference.
Probably the biggest take home message

though can be summed up in two words:
Enjoy it! You have worked incredibly hard
to get to where you are, from UCAS to
interviews and even university assessments.
You wanted to be in that position and it
is a very rewarding position to be in. You
have the ability to make a real difference to
someone's life.
Enjoy the experience of working with
patients. Enjoy working with your own peers.
Enjoy the atmosphere and environment of
your clinical setting. Five years of university
can seem long to many people. It will fly by!
Seeing your first patient can seem like
a daunting idea. But it is an incredible
milestone to pass in your practicing career.
Try not to focus on many negatives. Always
look at the positives.
Look at how to improve, what to learn,
and what to take away from your experiences.
But enjoy what you do. Have fun with it. You
just completed your first step to becoming
a dentist!
Bibliography
1.
Bateman, H., Thomason, J.M., McCracken, G. & Ellis, J.
2016, 'Developing assessment: involving the sessional clinical
teacher', British dental journal, vol. 220, no. 3, pp. 129-132.
2.
Birks, Y., McKendree, J. & Watt, I. 2009, 'Emotional
intelligence and perceived stress in healthcare students: a
multi-institutional, multi-professional survey', BMC Medical
Education, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 61.
3.
Dyrbye, L.N., Power, D.V., Massie, F., Eacker, A., Harper, W.,
Thomas, M.R., Szydlo, D.W., Sloan, J.A. & Shanafelt, T.D.
2010, "Factors associated with resilience to and recovery from
burnout: a prospective, multi‐institutional study of US medical
students", Medical education, vol. 44, no. 10, pp. 1016-1026.
4.
Frankel, R.M. & Sherman, H. 2015, "The secret of the care
of the patient is in knowing and applying the evidence about
effective clinical communication", Oral diseases, vol. 21, no. 8,
pp. 919-926.
5.
General Dental Council. (2016). Student Fitness to Practice.
London: General Dental Council. Available at: https://www.
gdc-uk.org/api/files/Student%20fitness%20to%20practise%20%20Training%20provider%20guidance%20(2016).pdf

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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of DentaltownUK October 2017