A Day In The Life Of A Dental Nurse- Krystyna- Part 1- Morning Reception And Infection Control
I arrive to work 15 minutes before I start, 30 minutes before the first patient, to make sure I have not forgotten anything and to hopefully get a good car park!
This morning I am on the front desk and on sterilisation duties. When I begin I make sure all the computers are on and logged in to the dental program, which shows us the day’s appointments; the waiting area is tidy; I take the “open” sign out the front and turn on the radio.
Once the reception duties have been completed I head to the sterilisation room which contains the correct machines that are used to make sure all instruments are sterilised to the Australian standards, which ensure you and your family are protected.
To begin the process of getting the sterilisation room set up, I fill up our Ultrasonic – which shakes off debris from the instruments that may have been missed while scrubbing. I then fill up the bucket which is used to scrub the instruments. In both the bucket and ultrasonic I put two pumps of a dental cleaning detergent. The ultrasonic is put on a de-gas cycle which lasts 5 minutes.
Once the de-gas is completed I put a round disk in the Ultrasonic with pencil mark on it that I have drawn and put a normal cycle on, that lasts 10 minutes. The test is completed to check that the Ultrasonic is working before we can begin using it. If the pencil mark is gone at the end of the test it has worked, if the pencil mark is still visible it means the test has failed and we need to ring a technician to come and solve the problem before we can use it.
While waiting for the disc test to be completed, I empty the night load from the Autoclave. At the end of every day we get a load of instruments ready in the autoclave, so that at 5AM the next day the steriliser automatically starts a cycle so everything is ready to go for the day when we get to work in the morning. This cycle includes instruments and a helix test. This test checks that the steriliser can penetrate (and therefore kill infectious material in) hollow dental instruments.
When emptying the Autoclave I check the bag in which the instruments are in to make sure the colour code indicator has changed colour: this happens if the steriliser has reached optimum temperature (the temperature required to kill infectious agents) and therefore means the instruments are sterile. I also check to make sure the Helix Test has passed and put a new indicator in and place the helix text in to a bag to be put in at the end of the day for the night load.
By this stage the first patient has arrived. I ask them to either check their medical history if it is over 12 months since their last visit or to fill out a new medical history if they have not been here before. A number of medical conditions and medications affect teeth and the safety of dental treatment.
While they are waiting, I let Deb know the patient has arrived. While Deb and Kaitie are assisting the patient, I begin making up the trays for the day’s patients. I print out a “day sheet” the day before which has the patient’s names and what procedure they are booked in for. Making the trays makes Kaitie’s job a lot easier as it makes the time between the setting up of patients faster, in turn, less waiting time for the patients!
Once the patient has finished their appointment, I check them out. Deb brings the patient to the front desk, lets me know what further treatment the patient needs and how long they need for their further appointments. We then process the patient’s account. If the patient has Private Health we are able to process this on the day using our Hicaps machine. We swipe the Private Health card and the information is sent to them and they reimburse on the day. The amount owing is the “Gap Fee”, which is paid to us by the patient.
Once the patient is has left, I scrub the instruments then put them through the Ultrasonic. Once the Ultrasonic is done, I get the instruments out and let them dry. When there are enough instruments for a load to go through the Autoclave I make sure all instruments are dry before putting them in their special sterilising bags them and putting through a sterilising cycle. An Autoclave load goes for about 50 minutes.
Once the steriliser room is set up for the day, while still continuing to go back throughout the day for the instrument loads, I begin the reception jobs for the day.
To be continued…
