Advancing practice in dental nursing. Part 3: feedback

Much of dental nurse training, general nurse training and any skill-based profession involves clinical placements during which the student is observed, assessed and given feedback on their performance. You should therefore be reasonably comfortable with the idea of someone observing your clinical practice and then giving you feedback on your strengths and weaknesses. If you have been qualified for a while you may also have some experience of observing others and giving them feedback.

What you might not be so comfortable with now, as a qualified practitioner, is the idea of someone observing your clinical practice tomorrow and then giving you feedback. Observation of practice and structured feedback is becoming a formal requirement for many qualified professionals and most dental practices will have some form of annual performance review for all of its staff. Unfortunately, what is meant to be a supportive and developmental process often becomes a source of great anxiety. Rather than a motivating experience, it de-motivates, frustrates and angers many people who experience it. That is not because observation and feedback don't work, but because it is often done poorly.