Dental Tribune UK Edition, September 20-26, 2010, Vol. 4 No. 22

you work within, though typi- cally, this will involve working on consultant clinics, pre-assessing patients for theatre, conducting your own minor oral surgery lists, ward duties and of course, being the dreaded SHO ‘on-call’ for the department, which tends to be the most demanding, ex- hausting and exciting part of the job – you never get the same day twice! Knowing when you are out of your depth is vital. There’s no shame in calling your registrar if you’re stuck, and all the team members (nurses in particular) have a huge breadth of knowledge and can be an invaluable source of informa- tion – remember they have seen years of SHOs come through the department, making the same mistakes; filling out X-ray forms incorrectly, struggling with can- nulas, fainting in theatre… First point of contact Being the on-call SHO means be- ing the first point of contact for the department. Receiving refer- rals from other hospitals, A and E departments, walk-in centres, GPs and GDPs across your re- gion, one of the most important skills to master early on is to at- tain a thorough history over the phone to assess the urgency and appropriateness of the referral to assess whether a patient is fit for transfer. The nature of referrals varies widely and often depends on the department you work in. From my experience from work- ing in a busy city centre hospital in the North East of England, a significant volume of refer- rals tend to be for facial trauma (frequently including facial lac- erations, zygoma, mandible and infra-orbital floor fractures to the more severe complex poly trau- ma cases). Adrenaline rush It’s a unique chance as a dentist to be truly on the medical ‘front- line’ and there’s never a dull day when a potential neck stabbing, road traffic accident, shooting, or airway compromising swelling could be coming your way the next time the phone rings. The dreaded ring tone will be etched in your brain and it’s an amusing phenomenon watching a room full of SHOs jump in unison as soon as it rings! Though you can’t beat the sudden burst of adrena- line (and panic!) when you hear the words from a tense sounding A and E registrar “I’m in resus, we need you here now!” There will be times when you feel exhausted and tempted to dropkick the on-call phone across an overflowing A and E department at 4am on a Sat- urday night as the revellers begin to roll in, and you sometimes will be on shifts where you feel totally overwhelmed. For me, the major stresses came not so much from the na- ture of the work, but the sheer volume. You have to constantly reassess the tasks that need to be done and more importantly pri- oritise who must be treated first – something which can be really tricky when A and E staff start breathing down your neck about patients who are close to ‘breach- ing’, but you’ve got to put your patients interests first rather than work to targets. Learning curve There are times when it’ll feel like the worst job in the world, but equally there are times when your shift ends and look- ing back you can’t believe what you’ve managed to achieve and what you’ve learnt. Nothing beats the job for hands-on surgical experience. You’ll pick up some fantastic skills in examining pa- tients, facial suturing, dento-alve- olar surgery and so on, as well as other, slightly more bizarre skills, like the ability to go from fast asleep to running down the cor- ridor in 10 seconds flat and being able to present a ward round of patients coherently to a room full of consultants after being awake all night closing lacerations. I’m just concerned I’ll find going back to dentistry a little dull in com- parison…! DT About the author S a r a h A r m s t r o n g qualified from Newcastle Uni- versity in 2008 and is current- ly working as a maxillofacial surgery sen- ior house officer at Newcastle General Hospital. ‘The dreaded ring tone will be etched in your brain and it’s an amusing phe- nomenon watching a room full of SHOs jump in unison as soon as it rings!’ R4 Practice Management Software Being able to access your practice management system from your smart phone is just one of the new software innovations we’re rolling out this year. Book your demonstration now and see just how advanced R4 is. Access your practice data on your iPhone or Blackberry A breakthrough from Carestream Dental For more information or to place an order please call 0800 169 9692 or visit www.practiceworks.co.uk © Carestream Dental Ltd., 2010. The Kodak trademark and trade dress are used under license from Kodak. Com e and see us on Stand Q 7 atthe D entalShow case in O ctober 19EducationSeptember 20-26, 2010United Kingdom Edition

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