In dentistry, for many years now, we've been encouraged to engage in continuing professional development, which is right. Lifelong learning was a phrase that came to the forefront when I was a new graduate, and it has been something that infiltrates all of our work.
In the past, you completed your dental degree, graduated, worked, retired, and never learned very much. You collected your pension. However, the world changes so fast that we now have to select very carefully what we learn and how we do it.
One of the areas I've always known to be some of the best possible CPD (and often the cheapest) is finding a friendly practitioner and observing.
Seth Godin wrote many years ago that if you want to learn how to use Excel spreadsheets, then hire an Excel expert, let them watch you work, and then watch them work, and then learn. This is definitely a thing; having people in your room and asking them to comment and then being in someone else's room and commenting on them as a dentist, nicely and kindly and constructively, is one of the most extraordinary ways to work.
Over these few weeks, I've been in surgery with some of the guys that work with us here at The Campbell Clinic, watching procedures that I've not watched for years because my practice is so limited, watching endodontics, periodontology, perio surgery, many other different aspects of work, including general dentistry. I've not just been seeing the procedures and how they work, but seeing how people interact with patients, how they talk to people, how they discuss treatment plans, how they care for people, picking things up all along the way, relearning things that I should have known but forgot ages ago.
I would encourage you to consider this as part of your CPD.
We've almost fallen back into the trap of CPD being something that we tick off in order to get a registration again, but it's not; it's a joy and a wonder. Always curious, always looking to see whether we can get that little bit of improvement.
Blog Post Number - 4195
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