Dental/dental hygiene trainees discuss managing patient expectations, time, and university-based dental clinics. (2023)
So at the school we have certain set hours of when we can see patients and that’s really it. And it’s usually a two and a half hour, three hour window. But when we can see patients, so one of my patients was having a hard time understanding that just because that’s the window. The appointment starts at let’s say 9:30, you have to be there at 9:30, you can’t come at 10:30 and expect the appointment to continue. You have to, it’s a three-hour procedure sort of thing. So she was not understanding that part. She wanted to kind of come in at 2:30 instead of one o’clock. And I was like, it’s not a private practice where we can just put you right in. I have to have you come in at one and if you’re a few minutes late, it’s understandable, it happens, but by a certain time they’re not going to have me… The faculty won’t allow us to start doing an operative at 2:30 because the session ends by 3:30. So there’s certain rules that are kind of hard to explain and it just comes with it being a school and having to continually tell my patient like, “I’m sorry, it’s just a learning facility. Things take longer here. It’s just the way it works.” And for some people it works. And for her, she was much more understanding after I’ve had to remind her that it’s a school, but that’s just one of the issues that she had. And I feel like that’s what a lot of our patients, they kind of get frustrated that we have to stop so many times to get checks or get faculty to come over to swipe.