scope of practice

Most dental nurses are covered by their employers indemnity insurance as part of the practice. However this usually only covers the nurse for claims etc and doesn't include legal advice or representation at hearings by the GDC.

The GDC standard document states that if YOU are carrying out tasks within your scope of practice then YOU must make sure that you are properly trained, competent and indemnified. SO...if something goes wrong and you weren't properly trained then you would be responsible. However if the dentist was aware of you doing this then they would also hold some of the blame.

If you're currently training and performing your impressions and radiographs as part of a training plan, and something goes wrong then you should be fine if you are supervised by a trainer.

Hope that answers your questions

hi everyone,
im a newly qualified dental nurse and im working towards my hnd qualification. i was just wondering if any of you take imps or x-rays or any other extended duty and have every had an accident/incident/problem with the patient? (worse case scenario - taking imps on a patient but the patient complained to the gdc because they were choking/unconformable/didn't understand the procedure etc) if so who would be responsible, you or the dentist? and would you still be covered by your indemnity insurance? i'm not sure if it covers nurses performing extended duties,
thanks in advance, apologies if the answer seems obvious!