Georgetown : Equipped with the knowledge and skills to help bolster the dental health service delivered by the Ministry of Health, 10 Dentex were on Friday duly certified at a simple graduation ceremony at Cara Lodge, Quamina Street, Georgetown. However, ahead of being officially certified the graduands were subjected to remarks from Chairman of the Dental Council, Dr Ovid Isaacs, who categorically warned them to refrain from illegal practices. “Your education has certain limitations; your training is a limited training and the training does not give you the scope to jump into deeper areas so you need to keep first and foremost in the back of your minds the extent of your training. Don’t jump into areas that you cannot get yourself out!”
He explained that the Ministry’s focus is to train personnel to provide a crucial service to the public which does not in any way translate to allowing persons to engage in “quackery”. He revealed that the Dental Council at the moment is confronted with “enough of a fight right now with ‘quacks’ on the Corentyne, the West Bank and West Coast…” In fact he revealed that a number of persons have been arrested and there are yet more that the Council has intentions of dealing with. “What I don’t want to see or hear is that any of you are going out there and setting up your own private practice…You are not allowed to establish a private practice…you are not dentists…don’t get yourself in trouble…” Dr Isaacs warned. He insisted that Dentex are of a level of qualification that does not allow them to perform without being under the supervision of a dentist.
Dr Isaacs’s charge was also mirrored by Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences, Dr Emanuel Cummings, who chaired graduation proceedings and Director of Health Sciences Education within the Ministry of Health, Reverend Noel Holder. “We expect you to go out there and do your best and allow the Ministry’s flag to fly high…we expect that when you get out there you will not be what you are not,” Reverend Holder added.
Regarding the graduation as a special occasion, Principal Dental Officer, Dr Shameer Ali, said that while the programme represents the end of a formal training it marks the beginning of service to the health sector. “This is only the beginning of your training, if you think this is the end of your training you have to understand that when you get out of training school you are just equipped to get into the health sector…when you get in there you will be learning so much more,” Dr Ali asserted. He pointed out that the experience that will be gained “will teach you what could not have been taught as a student.”
The 10 graduates – Tiadi Blair, Jenice Francisco, Raquel Revena Hamilton, Shontell Tiffany James, Robin Makardajh, Shammah McPherson, Poonadai Persaud, Danielle Phillips and Mandy Sukdeo – have all been assured positions within the health sector but were urged not to limit their knowledge base to the Dentex Training programme. However, while all 10 graduated on Friday, they will not all immediately assume practicing as three will return to gain some additional clinical practice.
They were all able to undergo training at the Cheddi Jagan Dental Centre which has since been transformed to a training facility. The batch of trainees commenced training on October 26, 2009, a course which lasted for just over two years.
In presenting the Training Coordinator remarks and report Dr Debra Patterson-Skeete described the now qualified Dentex as a “great group of students…although we had our ups and downs” which were not limited to chronic late coming and absenteeism. However, by the end of the programme the trainees were able to pull themselves together thus allowing for successful completion despite an evident struggle to retain lecturers. In terms of clinical rotations the Dentex programme had to compete for dental units with the University of Guyana Dental programme, Dr Patterson-Skeete revealed. This, as a result, saw efforts being made to incorporate the help of Rotary mobile bus where students were able to utilize the dental units there.
The best graduating student was Danielle Phillips, followed by Mandy Sukhdeo and Katy Ann Garret. They were all presented with trophies and their certificates by Minister of Health, Dr Bheri Ramsaran. According to Dr Ramsaran the success of the batch of students by extension represents the success of the Ministry which will inevitably lend to the availability of equitable service being delivered to more people across the country.
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