On Tuesday the 20th of March, the MUDRSoc held their ‘Choosing a Practice’ event. This event was specifically to help our Year 5 BDS students with their upcoming interviews for foundation year placements. This talk was delivered to us by Dr Phil Dawson and his current FY1 graduate, Lucy Broxson.
The talk started with Dr Dawson talking about rankings and why they don’t decide everything for you. He reassured students that all DFT practices are highly rated and that the only way to know if a practice suits you is by meeting them and not just relying on rankings.
The duo then talked about their tips for students to pick practices. The first and most key point in this section of the talk was, geography. You must think seriously about where you plan on living and how you plan on travelling to and from the practice. This must be taken into account because a year is a long time to be doing a commute that takes up all your free time. They then talked about practice type and how single handed or multi-surgery can influence your decision. For example, a multi-surgery might have services that appeal to you and have opportunities for you to gain experience. From a more day-to-day point of view, working hours, holidays, patient lists and appointment control were other aspects of the practice that students should take into account. And looking toward their futures, students should see if the practice is private, corporate or owned by practitioners to allow for any associate opportunities.
The talk then moved on to picking an educational supervisor. Dr Dawson’s key points were the ES’s interests, experiences within dentistry as well in their personal life. This person will be working closely with you for a year, so you want to like them as a supervisor and a colleague. Dr Dawson then stated that he looks for his FD’s to be P.E.R.F.E.C.T:
The talk ended with a great Q&A session after a brief overview of the FD year by Lucy and Phil:
Another big thank you to our speakers for taking time out of their days to come and speak to us!