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www.graduateopportunities.com >> career advice
my
undergrad experience
Kylie Arnot Graduate Diploma of Dentistry, Griffith University (Gold Coast).
Kylie completed a Bachelor of Oral Health in Dental Science in 2009 and is continuing her education through a Graduate Diploma of Dentistry. She has also undertaken several different work placements.
Describe your placements and what was involved. The placements offered in the Graduate Diploma of Dentistry through Griffith University are an essential part of integrating the many years of theory into application in the workplace. The program offers four placement rotations in the final year of study.
The first is at Brewarrina, and gives final year Griffith dental students exposure to the realities of rural and Indigenous health practice while fully supervised by qualified dentists. The clinic provides a valuable service for Brewarrina residents who otherwise have to travel about 100km to the nearest dentist. The type of care offered is restricted to Primary Oral Health Care, with an emphasis on health promotion and prevention.
The second placement offered is in conjunction with Queensland Health. Students undertake training at Queensland Health-based public dental centres for a total of 12 weeks. Students are supervised by a qualified public dentist and provide a range of dental services. The placement exposes students to a wider range of dental
presentations as well as clinics and dentists. This essentially becomes the students’ first experiences of the fast-paced nature of work after university.
The third placement is offered at the Centre of Medicine and Oral Health for the Griffith University Dental Clinic, a 54-chair facility that offers students extensive hands-on exposure to a wide variety of clinical specialities including oral surgery, periodontology, endodontics, orthodontics and prosthodontics.
The final placement is a two-day oral surgery rotation with renowned oral and maxillofacial surgeons. Students observe and assist with outpatient consultations and examinations, and in the operating theatre with cases that vary from removal of wisdom teeth to treating trauma victims.
Did you enjoy the rural Brewarrina clinic? What has made a lasting impression on me is its isolation and the minimal infrastructure and resources readily available to the community. It is a great experience for students to be a part of a rural community and develop an understanding of the various challenges that face the residents of remote areas, such as distance, lack of proximal resources, socioeconomic status and reduced community health education. The limited access to some equipment and resources requires innovation and flexibility in the provision of patient care.
Working in Indigenous communities is an amazing experience that offered me the chance to learn about different cultural groups, while seeing first-hand the improvements I could make by choosing to practice in a rural or remote location after graduating.
Have your placements shaped your career plans? Rural dentistry appears to offer exposure to a wider variety of treatment procedures and patient presentations. Additionally there is a good quality of life found in rural communities, with a slower pace of life and welcoming people. However, most importantly there is a greater need for all allied health, especially dentists to service the rural communities. My rural placement has enabled me to identify areas where I believe I can deliver the most impact in the areas of interest to me. For these reasons, since my rural placement, I have been seeking employment in remote and Indigenous communities.
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