Professionalism and leadership
"The dental hygiene graduate must be committed to the legal and ethical practice of dental hygiene demonstrating integrity, honesty and confidentiality with colleagues, patients and the community."
In my senior year of hygiene school, I further developed my understanding of ethical and professional conduct. I am very confident in my knowledge of state and federal guidelines which pertain to my practice. I had the opportunity to dissect current ethical dilemmas related to our profession. It was very valuable to have class discussions about moral and ethical dilemmas. A great deal of professionalism is being ethical and factual.
As a part of my ethics class, I attended an informal conference held by the Virginia Board of Dentistry ("Board"). I was able to witness the fact-collecting procedure and delivery of findings. It is my opinion, as well as the Board’s, that Dr. Jackson did not uphold his duty to properly care for the patients he had been entrusted to treat. He abandoned his patients, which is a punishable offense. Furthermore, Dr. Jackson allowed patient PHI as well as controlled substances to leave his premises without oversight. The Board decided to suspend Dr. Jackson’s ability to file for license reinstatement for two years. The biggest takeaway from my time at the meeting: My license means I am solely responsible for upholding all obligations to my patients, profession, and community. |
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