What is a professional?

On 30 September 2013, the GDC released their new ‘Standards for the Dental Team’ guidance. This is to help us understand the standards they expect from us as professionals. This is not just guidance for dentists; it's for all of us who are registrants. It is worth non-registrant members of the team becoming familiar with them, too. It tells us we should apply our ‘knowledge and skills ethically’. It tells us we have a ‘professional responsibility to be prepared to justify your actions’. So, why do we need these standards? What is a professional?

The issue here is that ’professional’ has inherently different meanings to everyone. In the past, it tended to be accepted that it was someone who made a living from doing an activity rather than an amateur who did it for fun. Like with sports; being paid for playing football makes you a professional. If that were the case, then everyone who had a job would be a professional and that isn't true. The professional standards council say professionals are governed by codes of ethics; that ‘professionals are accountable to those served and to society’. This sums it up well, but to our patients what are we? Many would say ‘well paid’. This is where there is a difference in the public's perception. How many times have you been asked: ‘Are you training to be a dentist?’ I still get asked this working as a hygienist too. Upon receiving their estimate, there is the occasional: ‘Does he want a new car?’ echo from the waiting room. The truth is we all train, we are all registered and we are all professionals. The risk is the general public do not always appreciate this. They do not understand the costs of running a practice, the amount of disposables used and the protocols we all follow. They don't understand the time and dedication given to train nor do they fully appreciate that dental nursing is a career path in itself. This is a failure on our part, as a profession, to address this. We should be raising the profile of dental nurses as professionals, to help educate our patients.