The new year is a time to celebrate, and many also take the time to make resolutions and define goals. We want to share some of our favorite articles to inspire and motivate you, support your professional development, and help you avoid burnout. Here’s to a great 2022—and beyond!
Motivation and inspiration
Time to influence?
Have you ever thought about being a dental influencer? Meet Josey, aka Josalyn Sewell, RDH, a dental hygienist who no longer makes a living by what she can do with a scaler, but by what she influences as a leader. “I feel within me a calling to share my experience with other dental hygienists,” says Sewell. “I share not for fame and glory, but to demonstrate a critical point: if I can do it, so can you.”
10 tips for dental hygienists looking to do more with their career
A reason to smile
Kirsten Brancheau, MA, RDH, profiled Tameka Schley Lee, a hygienist who’s had many hurdles in her life on the way to finding her calling inspiring and empowering other women hygienists. Tameka grew up in a working-poor home and was ashamed of her teeth. As a result, she dedicated herself to helping others find confidence in their smiles.
Empower, RDH: Inspiring, supporting, and empowering women hygienists
Professional development
Time management 101
There's no worse feeling than falling behind in your already tight day—Amber Auger, MPH, RDH, knows this firsthand and offers her top tips for helping manage your time and staying on track: “I've become a time management expert during the last 11 years in clinical hygiene,” Auger says.
4 time management tips for dental hygienists
A new beginning?
Change is hard, but sometimes it’s what you need both personally and professionally. Do you feel like it's time for a career change? Carol Jahn, MS, RDH, shares tips on how to start to move out of clinical hygiene to head toward a new beginning.
Finding your path to career development
New year = many new opportunities
For years, most dental hygienists had to take whatever job was offered. Not anymore: “For the first time in over 25 years, there is an abundance of practice opportunities where we can be paid fairly and respected for our contributions to the business,” writes Anne Nugent Guignon, MPH, RDH, CSP. Read her seven strategies for maximizing your worth in 2022.
7 strategies to strengthen your employment opportunities
Managing burnout
The struggle is real
Hygienists have long known that burnout is real, but never more so than the past few years. “Unfortunately, in the dental profession we are attuned to taking care of clients’ needs before our own, which can lead to burnout,” says author Jasmin Haley, MSDH, RDH, CDA. “Together as an industry, we need to learn the signs of burnout and discover strategies to guard against this harmful condition.”
Burnout: The clinical condition making a profound impact on our profession
Let’s be wholehearted
What is “halfway hygiene”—and what does it have to do with burnout? Explains Amanda Hill, BSDH, RDH: “Every day I was doing my absolute best with my patients with the time and equipment available. I was giving it my all, but I knew that my all wasn’t all there was. I was stuck in what I now term ‘halfway hygiene.’”
