Personal Responsibility in Raising Concerns

GDC guidance expects dental professionals to recognise when patient safety or public confidence may be compromised by their own conduct, performance or health, or by the fitness to practise of colleagues. This expectation applies to dental nurses as registered professionals.

Personal responsibility does not mean acting as a regulator within the workplace. It means taking reasonable action when a concern is real. That action may be seeking support for yourself, speaking with a colleague, telling a manager, or using a formal route if the concern is serious, unresolved, or cannot be handled safely at a local level.

Concerns may relate to

• Health: illness, relapse, fatigue, impairment, medication effects or unmanaged distress affecting safe practice.
• Behaviour: dishonesty, bullying, discrimination, harassment, intimidation, confidentiality breaches or unsafe pressure.
• Professional performance: repeated unsafe practice, competence concerns, poor records, failure to follow procedures or unsafe treatment conditions.
• Public confidence: conduct that may undermine trust in the dental profession.

Raising concerns should be proportionate and not used for ordinary employment disagreements, personality clashes or gossip. However, if patients may be at risk or public confidence may be reduced, doing nothing is not a neutral choice.

Personal responsibility is not personal blame

Dental nurses do not need certainty before raising a concern. A reasonable, factual concern deserves to be checked through the right route.