CSuK2 - Investments in Your Health Center Dental Workforce

Staffing continues to be one of the most critical issues facing the healthcare industry. Our ability to serve patients is reliant upon having adequate numbers of skilled, compassionate, and mission-oriented staff members. In a report published by the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute in December 2023, a vast majority of dentists in the public health setting indicated that recruiting clinical staff has been "very" to "extremely" challenging. In this session, we will use our successes at Dientes to demonstrate the importance of investing in workforce development. We will review programs and partnerships that create pipelines for all levels of staffing including dental assistants, hygienists, and dentists. In addition to programs which create pipelines for new staff, it’s important to focus on and invest in retaining and growing existing staff by developing opportunities to develop and promote staff within the organization. Finally, we will examine ways in which these training programs have affected patients and staff at our clinics and the importance of effective change management in implementing any new initiatives.