April 12, 2021

This month we hear from Ellen Davison, Manager of Dental Nursing and Technology at Leeds Dental Institute, to share her experience working as a course provider for NEBDN whilst navigating through a global pandemic. Ellen shares information on how Leeds Dental Institute run their courses and how they operate a successful business.

Ellen has successfully worked at Leeds Dental Institute for 32 years and has kindly written this article for NEBDN, to share her journey with other industry professionals. Read below:

The School of Dental Nursing has been training dental nurses since 1956. In 2015, the School of Dental Nursing and School of Dental Technology combined to form one joint school to become the School of Dental Nursing and Technology – Leeds Dental Institute, which currently delivers training to well over a hundred dental nurses and technicians a year. The joining of the two schools has meant that we and our learners benefit from the expertise of the two disciplines, and we are able to collaborate and share expert knowledge and skills, to enable a greater understanding of the differing roles within dentistry.

Our aim is to provide well trained, dynamic, and inspired dental care professionals who take real value from their training and will go on to deliver quality, patient centred care to the wider Yorkshire and Humber region.

Leeds Dental Institute is part of the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust and is committed to delivering the highest quality and safest treatment and care to every patient, with a vision to be the best for specialist and integrated care within the region. As a team, The School of Dental Nursing and Technology is responsible for delivering the pre-registration NEBDN National Diploma in Dental Nursing to dental nurses in general dental practice.

The school has been an accredited course provider since the early 80’s delivering NEBDN qualifications, and in our experience, dental practices understand and value the qualifications NEBDN offer.

The school also offers post-registration NEBDN qualifications in Oral Health Education, Sedation Dental Nursing, Orthodontic Dental Nursing and Fluoride Varnish Application.

The communication and service we receive from NEBDN is excellent, knowing that we can talk to someone is invaluable. Our auditor, Sandra, is so helpful and always there to support us along with the customer support staff who we know by name!

The school is, and always has been, passionate about supporting the career progression of dental nurses and with an experienced team of tutors and assessors, we understand the importance that NEBDN has in supporting the development of dental nursing career pathways. We work closely with them to improve the lives of dental nurses by providing industry approved qualifications.

During 2020, training providers had to quickly adjust their educational provision to accommodate the lockdown measures enforced throughout the pandemic, which meant like many other organisations, the delivery of face-to-face teaching had to change, and we had to adapt by implementing a range of technological applications that would offer the best support to learners. The School of Dental Nursing and Technology rose to the challenge that Covid-19 presented to the delivery of dental education and has rapidly enhanced all training programmes with technology assisted learning environments that support the dental nurses and trainee dental technicians to continue the development of their skills and knowledge, with minimal interruption to their training to complete their qualifications. The school has quickly developed their blended learning methodology that now covers both pre- and post-registration qualification courses, creating an online environment which is both stimulating and rewarding for learners, and they have transitioned well to this new method of blended learning –

 NEBDN’s change to online exams has helped facilitate this new method.

We actively support course provider networking events, national conferences and have been involved in the different qualification committees as committee members and chair.

We’re looking forward to the exciting times ahead with Ofqual recognition and hopefully an apprenticeship offering.

Ellen Davison

Manager of Dental Nursing and Technology

Written by
Jade Monori