The power of yet

Maybe dental students aren’t well suited to the learning of dentistry? 

In order to be selected for dental school, generally high grades are required. That quite often results in the selection of high achieving students who have not experienced the type of challenges, mental, emotional and practical, that dentistry throws at you.

The simple filling on the anxious patient.

The surprise large caries on what was thought to be a simple filling.

The root canal that comes out short.

A patient comes back with pain after a filling.

Learning in public is hard too.

Then, after the momentary celebrations that dental school is over, the realisation that the practice of dentistry is even harder, as there are more patients to be seen each day. More opportunity for disappointment.

Preparing students for this is essential. To have them ready emotionally for the challenges ahead. As surely, if they are to be lifelong learners, they will have to be giving themselves the “not yet” feedback.

That's a much better message to give yourself than, “unsatisfactory”.

Being a high achiever might be counter productive in all of this, if everything has come easy, as the tendency to catastrophise less than perfect outcomes can lead to loss of confidence. 

Having a boss that does not understand this may only contribute more to the problem.

Employers may not have time to support new grads or understand that dental school provides a completely different level of preparation for practice than they received. 

So we need to be mentally preparing the self-talk the students will use. 

We need to ensure they know the standard they need to achieve and then develop the skill to improve on this with time and expand and deepen their skill set.

Language is important in how it frames our ability to reflect and improve, and maybe this is the most important lesson to be learned at dental school.

Have a great week, and be kind to yourself as well as others

Rosie