If you are a mobile dental then a lot of patients depend on you for professional dental services. With the right team, you will be able to deliver the care your patients deserve. If a well-designed mobile dental program is the skeleton, your team is the soul and heart. On the surface, your team will be a group of people bound by common goals. The overarching mission that unites people in healthcare is delivering proper services to patients. When you are in the first stages of designing your program, do not lose sight of the fact that you need the right team to take it from a plan to real life.
Your team needs to be comprised of skilled and qualified people who work together. Read on to learn how you can create a good team for your mobile clinic.
Unique needs of mobile clinics
Healthcare occupations require a unique kind of professionals. In addition to meeting the basic qualifications, they should embody traits that you cannot learn, such as empathy, care, ethics, and so on. While these are important qualities of a good dentist, they just scratch the surface of what makes you successful.
Mobile healthcare that targets underserved communities experiences more challenges compared to healthcare delivered from a traditional brick and mortar clinic. Added stress related to regulated resources and supplies, space and time mean that your team needs to function as a unit. This is being done to bring positive change to people who need the services of a mobile dental clinic. Your mission will put you to the test and when it does, you will want a great team that will help you pass the test.
Choose a team that commits to values
It is important to understand that not every healthcare professional is built for offering mobile services. Mobile clinics are more focused on the picture of public health. Although it is a patient-focused model, it is not just about the patient you are treating. You are looking at the health of the patient from a birds-eye.
The people that contribute to the success of your program will be passionate about equity in dental services to the point of being willing to make substantial sacrifices to be on the front line and remain there. Working with mobile dental units will ask you to sacrifice things such as the luxuries of extra supplies and the comfort of space. Mobile dental care will ask you to do a lot of things with just a little and you have to do it well.
Commit to teamwork
You can only be strong if you work together. It is a proven fact that collaboration improves the outcomes of patients and reduces errors. This contributes to the success of your program.
Errors are less forgiving in a mobile dentist. You are working with supplies, funds, manpower and time. Your patients are less capable of error management. Do not forget that they have barriers to traditional dental care. They do not always have the means to correct errors when mistakes happen. You need a team that works together to solve problems.