Severe anxiety – coping as a dental nurse

Dhruvi Patel started her dental nursing journey at the University of Northampton in 2017. She completed university in July 2019 and became a registered dental nurse in October 2019.

She says: ‘I never actually thought about choosing dental nursing as a profession but knew I wanted to go down the university route rather than the apprenticeship/trainee route. When I searched the types of healthcare undergraduate courses, I came across dental nursing. I began to do my research on the profession and soon after I applied for the course.’

Dhruvi enjoys dentistry because every day is ‘different and unexpected’. She says: ‘I enjoy seeing patients of different age groups. In particular, I love seeing babies when they come in for their very first check-up. In the practice I work at we don’t rotate nurses; we all stick to our own dentists. This allows me to set out my surgery as to how I like it, this makes me enjoy my job a bit better knowing I’m feeling more comfortable in the environment I work in on a daily basis.’