A year from now I will be taking national boards, finals and getting ready to perform as a dental hygienist. A year may seem like a long time, but for us it seems like too short a span to learn all that we must to be hygienists. We are constantly comparing ourselves to a standard in our minds that we feel we may never reach.
Next Monday, some of us see our first patients. We will review their health history, perform an extra and intra oral exam and perhaps start probing the depths of their subgingiva. We have been doing this for months on each other and on mannequins, but the thought of doing this on real clients frightens us deeply. I think that is because we are so focused on doing good and making everything perfect for our clients. We must remember that although we are seeing these patients, this is a learning experience for us and the clients know it too. We are not expeced to be perfect and ready for boards after only a few months, so we should not expect ourselves to be either.
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