Registered Nurse (Dental)

Role Purpose: 

The purpose of this role is to provide quality health and personal care services to patients in a professional, efficient and courteous manner.

Roles and Responsibilities: 

• Identifies patient care requirements by establishing personal rapport with potential and actual patients and other persons in a position to understand care requirements.
• Establishes a compassionate environment by providing emotional, psychological, and spiritual support to patients, friends, and families.
• Promotes patient's independence by establishing patient care goals; teaching patient, friends, and family to understand condition, medications, and self-care skills; answering questions.
• Assures quality of care by adhering to therapeutic standards; measuring health outcomes against patient care goals and standards; making or recommending necessary adjustments; following hospital and nursing division's philosophies and standards of care set by state board of nursing, state nurse practice act, and other governing agency regulations.
• Resolves patient problems and needs by utilizing multidisciplinary team strategies.
• Maintains safe and clean working environment by complying with procedures, rules, and regulations; calling for assistance from health care support personnel.
• Protects patients and employees by adhering to infection-control policies and protocols, medication administration and storage procedures, and controlled substance regulations.
• Documents patient care services by charting in patient and department records.
• Maintains continuity among nursing teams by documenting and communicating actions, irregularities, and continuing needs.
• Maintains patient confidence and protects operations by keeping information confidential.
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; following manufacturer's instructions; troubleshooting malfunctions; calling for repairs; maintaining equipment inventories; evaluating new equipment and techniques.
• Maintains professional and technical knowledge by attending educational workshops; reviewing professional publications; establishing personal networks; participating in professional societies.
• Maintains a cooperative relationship among health care teams by communicating information; responding to requests; building rapport; participating in team problem-solving methods.
• Provide quality health and personal care services to patients in a professional, efficient and courteous manner.
• Identify, and manage as appropriate, treatment plans for patients at risk of developing chronic diseases. Provide health promotion to these patients to improve long term quality care (E.g. dietary advice, smoking cessation).
• Work in partnership with patients to support appropriate decision making.
• Liaise and support other members of the multi-disciplinary team and other agencies relating to patient care, maintaining good communication channels.
• Assess, plan, develop, implement and evaluate programmes to promote health and well-being.
• Be aware of safe guarding policies, both local and national, and implement such policies should it become necessary.
• Recognise and refer patients presenting with holistic health needs, including mental illness.
• Assess clinical conditions, prioritise health problems and intervene appropriately, including initiation of effective emergency care.
• Manage own patient caseload including the interpretation of test results and the ability to act upon these.