Dear students,
You are studying Dentistry and will be graduating at perhaps, one of the most exciting times in dentistry.
What will lie at your doorstep in an immense number of possible opportunities and options.
You have more information at your fingertips than anyone has ever had before.
The number of choices and options for you to choose your career direction have never been greater and more varied.
What direction will you take? What path will you choose? Here are my few pointers.
Just know, these are my pointers, but what you do will be entirely up to you.
1. Know why you are in healthcare. The word 'care' is the welfare of something or someone. Healthcare is the welfare of someone else's health. Your primary WHY should be the care of your patient – that is your PRIMARY reason. If that fulfils you, you won’t need anything else. Beware of pseudo outcomes – they may be awards, financial targets, followers or anything that boosts your ego. If these become your focus, your behaviours will change, and healthcare will become 'healthdisregard'. Using someone’s health for self-gain is a betrayal of trust.
2. Yes you will still want to reward yourself. Many will tell you, you are not a charity. That is true. So by delivering top quality healthcare, you will increase the trust and confidence of the patients you serve. They will value you, and they will appreciate you. That is where your reward will come.
3. This won’t happen overnight. True success takes time. Some say it takes 15 years to become an overnight success. Don’t rush it. Play the long game. Be patient. Beware of the bright lights that tell you that you can fast track your career to success.
4. There are no short cuts. NONE. You can’t fast track. Don’t focus on proving yourself – focus on improving yourself day after day.
5. Learn, learn, learn. Knowledge is power. The more your learn, the more you will know, the greater the value you will deliver. Learn HOW to learn.
6. With so much information out there, learn how to choose the right thing for you.
7. Make mistakes. You will fail. You will fall. Just fall looking upwards, recognise the mistake and learn from it.
8. Be careful which community you choose and who you follow as mentors, guides or inspiring characters.
You will get lots of people coming to your university to speak to you. Some may be there to sell their wares in a very subtle form and some may be there to truly guide you. There are takers, there are givers and there are fakers. Be very cautious who you decide to follow.
9. The community you choose will mould your values and your reason. Build an ecosystem that is there to help you, to guide you and to inspire you.
10. Just know, there are 60 million people in the UK and billions in the world. There are 42,000 dentists on the GDC register in the UK and not so many around the world. That means you will always be in work and never short of work. Focus on doing the right thing.
11. It is a privilege to serve someone else. Do it with integrity and pride and humility. Humility means my work is more important than me. Park your ego aside, and the respect will come. The trust will come and those who value you, will come to you too.
12. Be yourself, be authentic. You are you. Nobody can be you.
13. Take personal responsibility. No one owes you anything. Own your failures, learn from them and acknowledge the support that helped you succeed.
14. Finally, success isn’t financial (as someone once told me). Success is when you wake up each morning with excitement to do what you connect to and make an impact on someone else that is so huge, that money cannot buy. THAT is success. Find your spark, and thrive…
Oh ......And use sunscreen ……https://youtu.be/sTJ7AzBIJoI
If any other professionals are reading this, please place your advice below too.