Welcome

This course is for dental nurses preparing CPD for the GDC Safe Practitioner Framework Professionalism learning outcome P 1.2: Describe the legal responsibilities of maintaining and protecting patients' information.

SPF fit: This course supports the GDC Safe Practitioner Framework domain Professionalism, sub-domain Ethics and Integrity. It addresses learning outcome P 1.2 and links to behaviour P(B)11: Maintain contemporaneous, complete and accurate patient records in accordance with legal requirements and best practice.

Dental nurses handle patient information across the working day: in the surgery, at reception, during handover, while updating records, when speaking to relatives, when scanning documents, when sending messages, and when observing unsafe shortcuts. Protecting information helps protect patients.

Why This Course Matters

• Patient information is sensitive: dental records can include health details, identity data, family circumstances, financial information, safeguarding concerns and communication needs.
• Confidentiality builds trust: patients are more likely to share clinically relevant details if they believe the team will protect that information.
• Legal duties apply in everyday moments: screens, paper, emails, conversations, logins and messages can all create risk of unauthorised disclosure.
• Dental nurses are part of the protection system: you may be the first to notice a possible breach or an unsafe workaround and should act accordingly.

A Simple Learner Spine

• Recognise: identify what counts as patient information and why health data requires protection.
• Limit: restrict access and share only what is necessary for the purpose.
• Protect: use approved systems, strong passwords, privacy habits and confidential waste routes.
• Respond: handle patient rights requests and report possible breaches promptly.
• Speak up: raise concerns about unsafe handling, even when there is a power imbalance.