Simon Palmer, November 2010 - We are at that time of year when the dental schools give their latest batch of final year students their degrees and the graduates go out into the world looking for jobs as dentists. Some practices will be eager to employ these graduates while others will be holding back preferring an experienced dentist to employ. There are many virtues of hiring a graduate over hiring an experienced dentist (you can read about them in a previously published article of mine called “It’s Open Season on Graduates” found here: www.primepractice.com.au/view_article.php?id=121).

However a graduate’s lack of experience is going to mean that your success criteria in a candidate needs to be different.

So what are the qualities that you should be looking for in a graduate dentist and how do you go about finding them:

Quality 1. They shouldn’t be too eager to be independent

One of the questions you ask in the interview should be something like “How much feedback and guidance do you think you will need? ”

After many years in university with people looking over their shoulder, it is understandable for graduates to be looking forward to their independence. The immature graduate will minimize the amount of guidance that they will need. Either because they had good grades at university or because they think that by saying that they want to be independent they are telling you that they won’t be a burden.

I have heard it said that to think that good grades in university translate into good dentistry is like thinking that you are great at riding a bicycle because you read a lot of books about it. I think this is probably an overstatement but there is some truth in its core message. There is a lot to learn in dentistry that you need to learn through the practice of dentistry that you cannot learn from a book. A mature graduate should be aware of how much they have yet to learn about dealing with real world clinical, staff and patient problems.

The answer that you want to hear from a mature graduate when you ask them the above question is that they recognise the shortcomings that come with their lack of experience. That they see how much more there is to learn from the feedback and guidance of a senior dentist with years in the field like the one at this practice.

2. They should know to ask for help when they need it

Women have a well known and often repeated complaint about men not asking for directions when they are lost. This complaint reveals something about human nature that employers need to be wary of (and not just about men). Many people feel that it is a sign of weakness to say that they need help, advice or guidance. Graduate dentists are inexperienced by definition and they will need guidance in their relationships with staff members, their interactions with patients and of course their clinical skills.

A practice hiring a graduate should be more concerned if the graduate was not asking questions than if they were. If the graduate were asking for assistance, the practice would know where the graduate was having problems and could provide advice or assistance. If they were not asking questions, you cannot assume that they had none. It would be safer to assume they were stumbling around when unsure about how to handle a situation. When you trust someone to be handling your patients you don’t want them stumbling around.

When you employ a graduate you need to make sure that it is established from the beginning that it is ok to ask for help and that it is expected that the graduate will need to do so. Recognising that you don’t know something and having the maturity to ask for assistance when you need it, needs to be viewed as a sign of strength of character and not a weakness.

3. They should be open to mentoring/ supervision

Any practice employing a graduate should set up a regular weekly session where the senior dentist or principal meets with the graduate. Ideally, this should be for about half an hour a week to review cases, discuss any clinical, practice management or interpersonal issue (working interactions with staff or patients) that they are having within the practice and mentor their development. This little time put aside will have a huge impact on the practice. The benefits should include:

• it can decrease the stress levels in the graduate;
• it can increase the graduate’s loyalty to both you and the practice;
• it can give you peace of mind that the patients that you have entrusted to this graduate are in good hands;
• it should bring to light any issues that the graduate has before they become a huge problem.

A graduate should be made aware of this mentoring/ supervising at the interview stage. A good candidate would be excited about this and see it as a benefit that your job has over others. A bad candidate will see this as a burdensome time for them that is not spent earning.

4. They shouldn’t be focused on the money

Graduate dentists are about to enter the first job in their lives that has the opportunity for them to earn decent money. Unfortunately as a result, many graduates will have money as the focus of their job selection criteria. The better graduate dentists will realise that as long as the remuneration is within industry averages:

• that their first years as dentists should be about honing their skills, learning as much as they can and building up experience and speed;
• that once they are able to do good dentistry, the money will follow without them needing to chase it.

5. They should be committed to continuing education

Ask the candidates in the interview what areas they would focus on in continuing education.

After many years in university some graduate may have academic fatigue. However materials, equipment and procedures are always changing and a good dentist will be one that is committed to keeping up-to-date and providing the best possible treatment for their patients. This will mean an ongoing commitment to continuing education.

The answer you want to hear will involve some area of dentistry that they are passionate about and/or want to learn more about. The ideal candidate will be one that has a keen interest in acquiring skills and knowledge in an area that would be a welcome addition to the practice.

6. They (and you) should want a written agreement

Written agreements are not just for bad relationships. They are a necessary part of every working relationship so that there is nothing left vague, everyone is on the same page and there are no surprises in your working lives.

Every practice owner should have a written agreement with everyone who is working in their practice (whether it is an employee agreement, contractor agreement or Service and Facility agreement and with any partners).

7. They should be aware that they will be a member of a team

While every dentist has a leadership position within the practice (in that they often need to give direction to front desk and dental assistants) some graduate dentists take this to mean that practice policies and guidelines for team members don’t apply to them. It is important to set the right expectations with a graduate dentist from the very beginning that they are expected to act as a member of the team and follow practice policies and guidelines like everyone else. Some examples of the many policies that are usually common across all team members include:

• being present in the practice between certain hours regardless of whether patients are booked;
• the need to be well groomed and punctual;
• being present at staff meetings;
• being present at practice continuing education/training days.