The latest issue of Modern Dentist Magazine features an Interview with Tempdent founder and Managing Director Lorraine Nadel exploring her and Tempdent's journey and where she see things moving in the future
Tempdent have been at the forefront of Dental Training and Recruitment for the past 23 years. We caught up with Tempdent Managing Director Lorraine Nadel to explore her and Tempdent’s journey and where she sees things moving in the future.
Q. Tell us a little about your background and how Tempdent was started?
I qualified as a dental nurse in 1992 and whilst working full time as a practice manager I noticed the temps we were having sent to the practice weren’t very good or reliable. I wanted to start Tempdent primarily as a recruitment agency and to be able to provide better quality nurses to the profession.
Q. What do you think was the biggest turning point in the evolution of Tempdent?
Definitely statutory registration. The year after Tempdent started in 1996 there was talk of statutory registration for dental nurses and at that time probably well under 50% of nurses were not qualified. I started worrying about my agency workforce and how I would be able to continue if more than half my workforce were unable to work. So primarily I started delivering training in order to keep my workforce going but at the same time started picking up other nurses in the area. Without statutory registration I don’t know, maybe we would have just stayed with recruitment. Our Training business is now just as large as the agency and our Dental Nursing apprenticeship provision which we started in 2001 is I believe the largest in the country.
So from the little acorn of a small part-time national certificate course we then went on to offer post registration courses. Then we started delivering CPD to the whole dental profession registration and now offer this online as well. We offered a management qualification for practice managers from very early on but it just didn’t tick all the boxes, it wasn’t tailored specifically to dental practice managers. But with the trailblazer introducing the DPM level 4 qualification, we started delivering that in January 2018 and that has been very popular.
Q. How has your role changed over the years? What has been your biggest learning?
I have learnt so much over the years. I didn’t go to university or do a business degree from a business perspective had to find my feet on the job. I think the biggest challenge over the years has been ‘letting go’ and delegating. We obviously started off with just me and now we have got 72 members of staff and you can’t do it all yourself! I now can’t do anything without my fabulous team.
Q. What are the biggest changes that you see in dentistry moving forward and what challenges does this offer?
I think the biggest challenge in dentistry at the moment is keeping people within the profession. It’s always been a problem keeping dental nurses in the profession but we are now even finding it hard to keep dentists in the profession. We are very proud that we have been working with the Trailblazer Dental group for the last one and a half years and are very excited to see the proposed developments in dentistry being discussed for the next 25 years. The different courses being introduced and the effect they will have on the structure of dentistry is quite profound and the fact a DCP will have a longer and more rewarding career is something that we are very excited about. It’s starting to happen already with the dental technician apprenticeships and later this year the enhanced OHP apprenticeship.
Q. What’s new at Tempdent? What have you been up to lately?
One thing I love about Tempdent is we never stand still! We are constantly evolving and progressing, whilst at the same time keeping our core values at the heart of Tempdent. Over the last year we have introduced quite a lot. In January 2018 we launched our online CPD and the uptake has been amazing. We’re also very excited to be starting our 3rd Practice Management apprenticeship intake in January and are also welcoming a very large corporate who will be putting all their practice managers through our course from March. Through our involvement with the Trailblazer group we have been instrumental in working with awarding bodies and Ofqual to develop the new apprenticeship end point assessments, ensuring they meet the needs of the profession. We are also moving to new premises in April which we are all very excited about so a lot to look forward to in 2019.
This article was published in Issue 6 of Modern Dentist which can be read online by following this link Modern Dentist Magazine Issue 6 P.19 or a copy should be coming through your letterbox any day now.
