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It’s A Tale of Two Hygienists’, roundtable edition, which means Andrew and Michelle have invited multiple guests on the podcast. This week:
Carrie Ibbetson, RDH, returns to the show, alongside Jennifer Stanley, RDH, to discuss infection control and prevention in dental practices. Carrie has worked as a dental assistant, front office coordinator, and a dental hygienist, temping in many offices, and Jennifer is a dental hygienist also with temping experiences. They join Michelle today to share the experiences they have had with infection control breaches.
In this episode, Jennifer and Carrie discuss their journey as dental hygienists and their experiences working as temps in various practices. They discuss the importance of infection control and standardization in the dental industry and the challenges they face as temps when trying to bring up these safety issues. They further discuss various experiences they have had in different practices where safety was breached. The episode rounds off with advice on how to advocate for your own safety without burning bridges.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS:
Interview starts: 4:02
– Jennifer and Carrie discuss their careers and how they got into infection control
– Infection control and prevention in the dental industry
– The importance of standardization
– Jennifer and Carrie discuss long term temping
– The challenge of bringing up infection control issues as a temp
– Challenging the lack of safety practices in the industry
– Instances where practices have neglected infection prevention
– Why you should learn infection control as a team
– How to be your own advocate for safety
– Where to find resources
QUOTES:
“I can’t go back and change any of that but moving forward, I can be part of the change.”
“It’s almost like when you’re a hygienist and you’re like, ‘I hate the office, but I love my patients.’”
“You love your patients so much, so why do you want them to be put in a disgusting situation?”
“There are so many breaches of infection control that happen all the time, day in and day out.”
“The great thing about temping is, I can go anywhere, I can pick up and as long as I’m licensed in that state, I can have a job next week. I never have ever once worried about where my next paycheck is coming from.”
“Just like our brain, we move into habit loops with our infection control.”
“If you are somebody who is out there challenging anything, they will talk about you.”
“Once you start actually taking classes that you really need to be taking, and you delve deeper, and you decide to take your head out of the sand, it is not easy because you can’t unsee it, you can’t unlearn it.”
“No one should go to a clean facility and leave with a healthcare-associated infection.”
“Another really good point is to get on your local social media channels and start advocating for questions that the patients should be asking when they’re coming in.”
LINKS:
A Tale of Two Hygienists Podcast
A Tale of Two Hygienists homepage
