Speaking Up and Fair Process

Speaking Up and Fair Process supports P 3.7. For dental nurses, this means recognising ethical issues, protecting patients, supporting colleagues and working within your scope.

Ethical challenges occur when patient need, limited appointments, costs, prevention, contracts and professional duties conflict. These pressures affect decisions, but they do not remove the need for fairness, clarity and patient-centred communication.

What to notice in practice

• Escalation: ask what the patient or colleague needs next, then hand over or escalate clearly.
• Records: treat information as useful evidence for learning, not just administration.
• Complaints routes: ask what the patient or colleague needs next, then hand over or escalate clearly.
• Practice learning: close the loop so agreed improvements are checked rather than forgotten.
• Patient safety: ask what the patient or colleague needs next, then hand over or escalate clearly.

Dental nurses often see how system pressure affects people: a patient in pain who feels unwanted, a colleague under heavy workload, a prevention opportunity lost, or a vulnerable patient who cannot follow the route given.

Good practice is practical and visible: prepare, listen carefully, check understanding, hand over clearly and report repeating problems so they are addressed at practice level. That is how this SPF outcome is applied in daily work.

Research and system context

Ethical practice means keeping patient interests, fairness and honesty visible even when systems are under pressure.