Diversity – and you

Diversity can lead to misunderstandings, communication problems and, on occasions, breakdowns in the professional relationship, which have little or nothing to do with dentistry itself.

The first step in avoiding problems of this kind is to develop an active understanding of everyone we work with, in a professional capacity, and whose background is different to our own. Many dental nurses develop in a multi-lingual setting – and the same is true of many of our patients, and the staff with whom we are working. The location of a practice may be such that a very diverse mix of patients presents for treatment with a variety of different language preferences. Whenever working with these patients in a healthcare setting, the onus is squarely upon the professional to bridge these cultural, ethnic and, perhaps, social divides.