As part of our role as Denplan trainers, the Academy team are always looking at new topics that can help practice teams in their day to day roles. Our aim is to offer practices information and training on current issues that they would find interesting and relevant to the whole team and to assist in the care of their patients.
One of the subjects that comes up regularly as something that affects everyone is mental health. YouGov research shows half of workers in Britain (52%) say they feel “very” or “fairly” stressed at work, with almost four in ten workers (39%) also saying they feel stressed when they think about work outside of work hours. Three in 10 (31%) say they feel very or fairly stressed even when they’re not working and not thinking about work.1
We know that dentistry is a fast-paced profession and with that a certain level of stress could come. Our module on stress management helps the team to look at how the daily pressures of life mean we are constantly wired to activity.
Stress can be a subjective subject and is felt in different ways by different people. The Academy have researched and developed the module with this in mind. Firstly, it begins by looking at the causes of stress and understanding the impact it can have on your wellbeing. It also encourages each team member to recognise the causes of stress to themselves and helps them with some useful techniques they can use to manage the effects, such as mindfulness.
As well as understanding stress within themselves, the trainer will also encourage the team to recognise potential signs of stress within others (particularly in nervous patients) and equip them to recommend resources such as useful websites or booklets that patients could refer to for guidance.
The length of time to allocate for your training day will range from an hour to two hours, depending on if your practice decides to focus on the stress management of patients alone, or to add further information with regards to staff managing their own stress too.