Implant Nurse – Assisting

Question:

Do you have any information on implant nurses? We have a nurse who has some experience in implant assisting and can be considered competent, but is there regulation or recommendation for formal training in this area?

Also her indemnity insurer suggests she declares that she nurses for implant procedures, but they so far only amount to about three in six months.

And lastly, if we started providing implant consultations and placements after our CQC registration, should I be informing them of this activity?

Answer:

We are an implant practice. If you registered with the CQC at the beginning with diagnostic and surgical procedures, this should cover yourself. If you are still in contact with your inspector, it might be a nice touch to ask them. Amazingly enough, there is no need for formal training at present for this as implantology isn’t recognised by the GDC as a Specialist subject yet! I am aware they are looking into this and it will probably be added in the near future.

As for your nurse, I know that Kings had a course as our own nurse attended it last year. It has to be said, she wasn’t too impressed with it and didn’t feel it really prepared her for the examination. However, she was very well experienced (as it sounds as your nurse) so she passed. I understand that the tutor has decided to run an internet version. I’m afraid I haven’t kept those details as we didn’t intend to use them again.

As for indemnity, I looked into this last year, we have a group policy via Dental Protection and I suppose as we are a specialist practice, we are covered for implants. If your Principal hasn’t got this type of policy, it may be cost effective as it covers nurses as well as the practice manager (especially if GDC registered). Its handy to use when you need clear legal advice.

We also have a policy here that any staff receiving training courses and CPD have to remain at the practice for a two year period after qualifying otherwise, they have to refund the practice for the course fees. Again, if you haven’t got this in staff contracts, its worth discussing with your Principal if they are intending to train up staff, but are afraid once trained, they leave.

Answer:

I am the practice manager of a dental practice – implant centre in Scotland. We do have two dental nurses, one attended a course called" Introduction to Implantology" which helped her a lot ( 7.5 CPD.) So I believe there must be courses that give a better understanding to the nurse. However I dont think it is required by the CQC.

When ever we have implant procedures (implant placement days) we have two dental nurses in surgery. (clean and dirty dental nurse) The implant nurse assists only, the other nurse does the other surgery duties like notes, sterilising, etc.