Checking Cover, Keeping Evidence and Speaking Up

Dental nurses should be able to check indemnity or insurance cover, know where evidence is kept, and escalate concerns if cover is unclear. Raising these matters calmly protects patients and professionals.

A practice can make indemnity arrangements clear at induction, during annual checks, when roles change, for agency staff, and when new services or skills are introduced. Dental nurses can support the team by asking focused questions and spotting gaps early.

Useful speaking-up phrases

• "Can I check where the indemnity details are kept for registered dental nurses?"
• "Does this cover include this branch and this additional duty?"
• "I am not comfortable making a GDC declaration until I know what cover applies."
• "This is a new task for me, so I need to check training, competence and cover."
• "If cover is not confirmed, I do not think I should start this work."
• "Can we add indemnity checks to induction or role-change paperwork?"

Keeping evidence need not be complex. A brief record of the policy name, provider, cover period, who is included, where the full document is held, and a contact for queries is usually sufficient. If the GDC requests evidence, the nurse should be able to access it.

A simple practice checklist

If appropriate cover is not in place for the work being done, the professional action is to stop, check and escalate before practising.