Specialist subjects?

Posted on May 17, 2018 by Alun Rees

I tried, I really did, I blocked my ears, turned my phone and other distractions off, reduced the sceptic factor setting as low as it would go and concentrated. The I came to some of the language used and the “mummy knows best” tone. 

  • HEE (NHS Leadership Academy) to develop and pilot a self-help, team building pack, specifically designed to help dental teams assess their current level of efficient and effective working practices and support the design of development plans for further strengthening team performance.
  • HEE (NHS Leadership Academy) to develop system leadership from within primary care, identifying and supporting high-calibre individuals to maximise their potential.
  • The causes of oral diseases are well understood, they are almost entirely preventable and many people now experience good oral health.

  • To reduce health inequalities, it will be important to take an approach of “proportionate universalism”,

By page 8 was floundering, tutting, shaking my head and then it dawned on me, these are the same people or rather people with the same backgrounds in academia, the armed forces and educationalists whose predecessors got us into this position, whose thinking is decades behind where it ought to be. They live their lives through reports, committees, papers and meetings and rarely, if ever, immerse themselves in the existence that the 80-90% of their profession actually live.

Thirty years ago their predecessors were similarly out of date, I was castigated and warned off for allowing my “team members”, a dental hygienist and two dental nurses, to visit a couple of primary schools that had never had any formal (or informal) dental health education. Apparently that was the role of the “community” dentists who rarely, if ever, visited and then to “do” things.

During National Smile Week I held a regular open house and (thanks to the BDHF) attracted a lot of media interest, the result a public put down in the letters page of the city newspaper from the LDC chairman.

The fact that I employed a full time hygienist in a one dentist practice provoked suspicion and comments from FPC/PCTs and the RDO. (ask your favourite ageing dentist to explain the acronyms)

Yes, everyone knows things must change but why does change have to be so far behind the curve? 

Please do take the time and read the report, HERE, it could be that as I have decided that life is too short for this stuff I am missing something, but after 40 years with a BDS I really don’t have the time to invest. 

  • It is clear that the DCP cadre is an essential element in the delivery of care and prevention. 

 

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BPP shuts dental course as regulator raises safety concerns – Laurie Taylor’s take.

Posted on November 16, 2017 by Alun Rees

Students on course forced to find alternative programmes, as government plans to open English sector further to new providers.

First, the truth:

BPP University has shut a dentistry course after it failed to meet General Dental Council standards, leaving new students unable to start and existing undergraduates facing an uncertain future.

Events at BPP, which is owned by a for-profit private equity group, come as the government prepares to open the English sector further to new providers by allowing them to award degrees from the start of their operations on a probationary basis. Critics warn that if new providers subsequently fail, or do not gain full degree-awarding powers, it could mean more students being left unable to complete their courses.

The mess we’re in – full story…via THE

and now: The Spoof

Laurie Taylor’s take – 12 October 2017

Pull the other one!

“One only hopes it doesn’t prompt an outbreak of bad dentistry jokes.”

That was the reaction of Poppleton’s own Head of Dentistry, Professor Phil McCavity, to the news that BPP University, which is owned by a for-profit private equity group, had shut down a dentistry course after it failed to meet General Dental Council standards.

Professor McCavity told ThePoppletonian that he had already encountered one report of the closure that was headlined “Painful cavity as BPP pulls course”.

Such glib recourse to puns threatened to obscure the emotional issues raised by the closure. “It’s important to remember”, said Professor McCavity, “that dentists also have fillings.”

He hoped that the BPP tutors would not feel too down in the mouth about the closure and would brace themselves for the challenges that lay ahead.

A spokesperson for BPP said that he was “bewildered” by the sudden closure. “As a for-profit provider, we’ve been happily making successful extractions from public funds for many years.”

(On other pages: Buddhism and Dentistry: how a belief in a higher power might allow one to transcend dental medication.)

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Word of the day – Mediocracy & a video to match….

Posted on November 1, 2017 by Alun Rees

MEANING: noun: Rule by the mediocre.

ETYMOLOGY: A blend of mediocre + -ocracy (rule). Earliest documented use: 1845.

USAGE: “Why are gifted individuals always forced out by the mediocracy?” Christopher Fowler; The Victoria Vanishes; Bantam; 2008.

IDEAS: 

(I notice that comments are now disabled for the video, a shame because I would like to see if there was anybody who had anything positive to say.)

It reminds me of this:

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The new reformation or just a course adjustment?

Posted on October 28, 2017 by Alun Rees

The university must be the site of the next Reformation – here’s why.

“Nevertheless, both students and their potential employers are led to believe that academic credentials confer on students that what they have learned at university constitutes knowledge that is more durable than it really is. And all of this is made possible simply because self-certifying “knowledgeable” people – in other words, academics – have said so…”

.”..The financial interest of academics in continuing to promote this idea – from the beleaguered lecturer to the over-remunerated vice chancellor – should be obvious. Perhaps only slightly less obvious is why students continue to believe it.”

This piece from “The Conversation” made me wonder (even more) about the role of universities now and in the future. Referring to universities as businesses and education as an industry as has happened over the past couple of decades has made me question the fundamentals of the need for universities in general and in particular in what I know best.

Should they be a “right of passage” or an extension of school or just a way of increasing the indebtedness of the individual and the country as a whole? Is the whole thing with massively expanding campuses, huge competition for students and vice-chancellors being feted with large salaries just an edifice waiting to implode? Has the expansion really improved the education of our young people or is it a way of moving them from 18 to 21 to keep them out of unemployment?

Only some of this is covered in Steve Fuller’s piece but it’s worth a read.

 

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Education, education, education or have I missed the point?

Posted on October 13, 2017 by Alun Rees

From The Times via BDA, the words of another one of those Johnson boys.

Universities urged to make more money from research

Universities are to be measured on how well they work with business, collaborate on research and development and sell their intellectual property. Jo Johnson, the universities minister, will say today that a “knowledge exchange framework” will be developed to analyse how good a job universities do at putting their research to commercial use. In Britain, more research takes place in universities than in comparable countries, at 26 per cent compared with 17 per cent in Germany and 13 per cent in the US. British university revenues from engagement with businesses are growing slowly, at only 1 per cent a year. American universities earn almost 40 per cent more from intellectual property licences as a percentage of their overall research resources than those in the UK. The University of Queensland in Australia earns more than any Russell Group university from this source. The Higher Education Innovation Fund, which helps universities to sell their intellectual property, is to be given £40 million by the government, taking it to £200 million in 2018-19.

No doubt there will be “World Class” hyperbole/BS that goes along with this. Remind me what is the primary function of a university?

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Should you lie in the sun?

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Alun Rees

I periodically share information gleaned from a well know dermatologist.

This time there’s also a video where, to celebrate an auspicious birthday, my little brother shows the results of his experiments in cloning.

It is well worth a watch, or two.

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Dental Sedation Adult and Paediatric Immediate Life Support course

Posted on September 21, 2017 by Alun Rees

Lynn Fox has asked me to promote her course on Dental Sedation Adult and Paediatric Immediate Life Support. As someone who practiced sedation I believe that on going training and updates on sedation techniques and particularly Life Support are essential.

Details:

For clinical dental staff who wish to provide / assist with conscious Inhalation Sedation or both Inhalation and IV sedation for adults and children. The Dental Sedation Immediate Life Support course fully complies with IACSD standards for Conscious Sedation in the Provision of Dental Care 2015 who state “Practitioners must be able to provide age-appropriate immediate life support as defined by the main elements of the Resuscitation Council (UK) ILS and PILS training programmes. It is not essential to undertake a Resuscitation Council (UK) accredited ILS/PILS course. Alternative courses with equivalent content which are adapted to the needs of dental practice are acceptable: these might also include the management of common sedation, medical and dental emergencies.”

We are responding positively to this by offering these main Resuscitation Council elements on a non Resuscitation Council, tailor made, one day Dental Sedation Immediate Life Support course which has been developed specifically for the Dental team. This Dental Sedation Immediate Life Support course clearly combines the main elements from the RC Immediate Life Support Course (ILS) and Paediatric Immediate Life Support Course (PILS) in one day.

The course developer and lead instructor is Lynn Fox, a Resuscitation Council accredited instructor in ALS/ILS/EPLS/GIC. Lynn has 11 years of experience in teaching to hospital cardiac arrest teams and has previously lectured on anaphylaxis for the British Dental Association which is now a BDA online lecture. Lynn also teaches Dental Medical Emergencies to in-house dental practices and groups including The Oxford Post Graduate Dental School at Thames Valley Health Education.

Next open course date:

26th October 2017 in Oxfordshire.

Dental Sedation Immediate Life Support course content includes:

  • Causes and prevention of cardiorespiratory arrest in the adult and child
  • ABCDE approach including the management of dental, medical and common sedation emergencies in the adult and child including respiratory depression, aspiration, anaphylaxis and other associated emergencies
  • Basic Life Support and Automated External Defibrillation scenarios for adult and child
  • Adult and child airway management using basic maneuvers & airway adjuncts: BVM, OPA, NPA and supraglottic airway (i-gel)
  • Team roles and responsibilities
  • Assessment will focus on the compromised airway both for the respiratory and airway compromised patient and during cardiac arrest.

Certificate will show 7 hours verifiable CPD as per GDC requirements.

Link to the course website for more information and to book your place  HERE

 

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