Staff meetings

Hi Allison

Does your dentist give any particular reason why he won't hold any meetings? It seems rather odd he won't even consider it.

Thanks to all of you,

It seems to me like most practices have some kind of staff meeting on a regular basis of either weekly or monthly or so. The practices I've worked at before have always had monthly meetings and all staff are paid either in clinic time or after.

I work with the senior principle dentist and it is he who refuses to have meetings. Believe you me, I am not shy and will speak my mind as to what I think is right or wrong.

However I am constantly hitting a brick wall with this one, even to the degree that the principle has told the CQC (when on a visit to our practice) and other agencies, that we do have regular staff meetings!

Of course this is just what I have been told by other staff because when anyone of importance visits they make sure I'm out of the way!

By the way, our practice manager is also one of the principle dentists so I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place!

Anyone know anyone who needs a good qualified dental nurse/OHE?

Hi Allison,

As far as I was aware when I worked at my last practice over 2 years ago now, CQC tell you that you are meant to have staff meetings but when I moved to my current practice they had never had one! We started having them probably about a year or so ago and the amount of issues that came up meant us having them every week for a long time!

At my old practice the Principal Dentist ran the meetings. The practice was closed from 12pm-1pm one day a month (always the same day of the week, chosen by the day they had most staff in) which meant that because it was part of their working day, they had to attend. Every member of staff ie, Reception, Nurses, Managers, Hygienists and Dentists were all expected to attend. I found them very useful, we were always aware of what was going on, what was coming up and any issues were dealt with and they also count towards your non-verifiable CPD!

At my current practice the meetings are run very differently.
Our "Head Receptionist" runs the meetings, they are done in our lunch hour (which we do get paid for) and it only involves Nurses and Receptionists. We are told that they do not involve dentists/hygienists/management to enable us to bring up any concerns we have that we may feel we cannot voice in front of them. Now, personally I feel if someone has an issue like that they should be speaking privately with the management out of the meeting.....? My feelings are that every member of the practice should be at the meetings, a lot of the time we're asked questions or told things have changed and then have to pass it on to our dentists who then have their own views on the matter and it then turns the practice into a bitchfest because everyone is moaning about things....I feel that the meetings we have at this practice are there for people to bitch and moan about what people aren't doing right, they're always negative and are just completely different to the way in which I feel a "STAFF" meeting should be. We are all expected to attend these meetings but during our lunch hours a lot of girls go into town to run errands they aren't able to do after work. I myself do keep these particular lunchtimes free because as I said, sometimes the meetings are useful and I'm sad enough to actually enjoy things like staff meetings but I would not be told "You MUST attend this meeting" when its during my lunch hour. If I don't attend, don't pay me the extra hour, my lunch hour is my own time to do with what I please.

I believe you should have staff meetings frequently to keep the practice running smoothly and if they are run well and involve the entire team then meetings should definitely benefit a practice!

Hi there,

We hold a team brief every morning for about 10minutes to go over the day and confirm any issues such as If there is a surgical happening but no runner I'll ask if anyone has a cancellation or failure for that nursgo and help, I expect all staff to attend these meetings including clinicians so if someone isn't down on time I'll have a word when they come in. Once a month we hold a departmental meeting all afternoon we have an agenda to stick to ranging from reception issues to nursing issues to the clinicians issues we discuss ideas and trials things and use the meeting to give the feedback. We also book CPD training during these afternoons so everyone has the chance to gain together. These are chaired by the lead clinician and are minuted we sometimes take turns minuting. You should talk to your principal or senior whoever would assist organising this, the team involves everyone so your dentists aren't at the top of the rank and issues don't involve them your girls may be full of ideas but need a chance to put them forward.

Well i have only been working in a dental practice for 3 weeks but i no that they are generally a requirement from the regulators as Tallulah mentioned.
Why dont you try something like a suggestion box or get each member of staff to write/talk to the principle - see i understand how difficult it can be to talk to the man at the top but i get through sometimes i might be because im new and i smile at him alot lol

Thanks Ditzy,

We are a big practice and all the nurses want staff meetings but the principle dentist says they are a waste of time and comes up with loads of excuses not to have them.

The thing is when stuff doesn't run smoothly the dentist goes mental at us! Even some of the associate dentists want meetings but it's not up to them and all requests fall on deaf ears so we're stuck!

Wish there was a way we could insist on them

For CQC purposes you should, and i think the minimum is quarterly and there should be written evidence eg, agenda and mins written up. At my practice we have them quarterly and as i say have a wirtten agenda, including clinical/reception updates, any problems, ideas, thigns like that. everyone attends unless it is a specific meeting for clinicians or just nurses etc. hope this helps.

Hello

I am only new to dental nursing but this reply comes from my points of view.

I would say for a dental surgery/practice to run smoothly and as a team then i would say yes meetings should be done but i think for some dentistry standards they do like them to be done.
Meetings are a great place to share thoughts and opinions but also to share information to everyone without having to tell more than one person but it also allows for responses and maybe other points to be brought up for next time. they can show people where they are going wrong or what the practice is trying to change or improve.
I would say staff meetings should be a regular occurrence like once a month or every 3 months where little meetings are added in if needed - i would say every 3 months allows for more things to be gathered but then this may mean a longer meeting time which could take a whole dinner or something.
staff meetings once they are set in place people should get used to and they will get used to remembering them but they should be set up by a managerial person or a designated person from the practice, so that person then sets up where and when the timings and the content but also this then allows other people from the practice to no who to go to when they have an issue or something that they want to raise.
Letting people know could simply be done by a mailing list (e-mail) or you could have staff meeting about the start up of staff meetings and see what they think.
Personally i think that everyone should be involved in a staff meeting or at least invited as i think that as a dental practice you all need to work as a team and no one should feel pushed out or left out and as i have seen it although my practice is extremely small each person within the practice relies on other members like dentists rely on dental nurses to do things but then they need the reception team to do things for them so simply the practice relies on everyone.

Staff meetings

Are they compulsory or necessary?

Do we have to have staff meetings? if so how often?

How are they set up?

Who should attend and what can be discussed?

Please, please let me know because our practice hasn't got a clue!!!!!