Throughout my time in school I have learned how to be professional in a clinical setting.

I have had several customer service jobs before coming to school. In those jobs, I have had a lot

of learning experiences on how to remain professional in tough situations but had never had the

patient experience side of things. I feel that my time in clinic at the College of Dentistry did a

wonderful job of presenting me with different situations to learn how to remain professional

while dealing with patients.

In my two short years of dental hygiene school, I treated patients through trying times in

our world. Not only did I attend school during a global pandemic, I also treated patients during a

presidential election. These two topics could be considered ‘touchy’ subjects to discuss with

patients during treatment. A lot of patients did not bring up the topics and our conversations

stayed very neutral and professional. There were a couple of patients that I had where they did

not want to talk about anything other than the presidential election or COVID-19 protocol

throughout the building. These patients tested my professional behavior abilities and patient

management skills.

In my portfolio I included a journal article that I reviewed in a log of literature from a

previous semester. This article is about motivational interviewing in dentistry. The article did a

good job of diving into how important it is to build trust with your patients in order for them to

answer correctly during your interview with them, especially as a new patient answering health

history questions. While interviewing patients, it is important to maintain professionalism

throughout the whole process.