appointment plan. Organization, and time management are areas of my practice that I feel I have improved on greatly as a term four Senior Dental Hygiene student.

Area’s I also feel I have improved on are being able to grasp and utilize theoretical dental hygiene concepts and put them to use during my appointments. At first, I had a hard time with my client’s caries risk assessment.  I did not always know what protective recommendations I would make in order to efficiently help maximize the state of the client’s oral health. The lead teacher of the program recommended printing and utilizing a cue card for my clinic binder. This cue card would display the CAMBRA guidelines in order to aid me in making the right recommendations for my clients to reduce their CRA level.  Today I struggle a lot less in clinic with my appointments then I did in term three, because of this I have been able to complete seven out of the four minimum required clients prior to the terms end. This is because I have had an amazing teacher who pushed me when I needed the push and put me back into first gear. My love for this profession is growing with every client completed. It makes me feel good to educate my client’s on how to maintain a good oral health thus achieving good over all health.

As a senior dental hygiene student, it is important to understand and utilize the CDHO Dental Hygiene Standards of practice. It is my understanding that the CDHO regulates the practice of dental hygiene by setting the requirements needed to be followed in order to be registered as a dental hygienist and establishing practice standards for the safe and ethical treatment of our client’s. Over the entire course of the semester, the two standards where I feel I have achieved the most personal growth, would be Professionalism and Professional Relationships.

 

Professionalism: The dental hygienists will demonstrate a commitment to their clients, profession and the public through ethical, effective, and safe practices. Within professionalism there are five domains: Responsibility, Accountability, Knowledge Application, Continuous Competency, and Professional Relationships.  Firstly, Accountability is where I have seen personal growth as I have been striving to facilitate informed decision making for all my clients by being able to better explain my findings that warrant my recommendations and the rational for my professional interventions. A big part of this standard for me was taking responsibility for my errors and taking the appropriate steps towards correcting the errors that occurred during my appointments. Secondly, I realized my growth in professional relationships. As a senior dental hygiene student, I have developed and maintained professional relationships with colleagues, the DDS, my teachers, and the CDHO to ensure optimal client care, safety, mutual respect and trust. I have also ensured client-centered care by establishing and maintaining positive, professional relationships with my

clients, their families and significant others, that are focused on client needs and based on respect, empathy and trust. Thus, I have ensured a positive and professional relationship with clients are maintained by respecting the autonomy of clients as full partners in their dental hygiene care and the decision-making process.

 

There are two standards where I feel I am lacking and need personal growth, the first being Continuing Competence and the second would fall under the division of Responsibility.

Firstly, I feel that I need to seek out quality educational activities outside of the program that are relevant to my area of practice as well as starting to create personal plans for continuing competence and professional learning. Secondly, under the division of responsibility within the CDHO standards of practice, I feel I need to work on recognizing the gaps within my knowledge and to take the appropriate steps to acquire this knowledge.

 

In conclusion, the over all goal for myself in term five, is to better my OHC abilities and being able to comfortably and confidently recommend interventions during my continuing care appointments. Improving my time management, responsibility and continuing my competences in term five will make me an all-around better clinician. In order to reach this goal, I plan on implementing self study through my books and notes from previous terms and classes while I am on Christmas break. I also intended on researching any free webinars that I feel will aid me in attaining new or furthering my dental hygiene knowledge of the process of care within the dental hygiene scope of practice.