As a recent graduate, you may have reservations on treating patients without supervision. That is an understandable feeling. We can all remember transitioning through this phase and we want to help you become more independent as soon as you are able. Each person responds differently to change and that is okay. We are here to help you know when you are ready to work independently to make confident and correct choices through building your clinical decision-making paradigm.
We have arranged your clinical learning experiences into two separate timeframes. After a week of Orientation to CDI, we will begin your training in a Focused Experiences Clinic. This spans the next 10 weeks of your training. During this time, you will be partnered with another Resident and rotate through 5 clinic areas at the Shaker Heights location. The clinic areas are as follows:
You will spend two weeks in specialized training in one of the five areas of the clinic. For example, you and your clinic partner may be assigned to surgery for the first two weeks. The two partners will perform surgery, such as extractions, during those weeks. After the two week period in surgery, the two partners will move to the restorative division and serve two weeks as restorative dentists.
This 10 weeks of focused attention will give your instructors insight into what your strengths and weaknesses are in each area of dental practice. This will assist with helping arrange activities and experiences to help you strengthen your weaker areas and make the strong areas even better.
During this initial time period, you will have more oversight, which will give you feedback about performance and help all of you improve your knowledge base. As time progresses, you will become more independent in your work. This will help us ensure that you have the desired level of competency and helps us know how to arrange for you to improve further.
After the first 10 weeks are completed, you will experience a second orientation week in which you will receive feedback on your performance in the Focused Experiences Clinic. During the this second orientation week, you will also learn specifics about hospital rotations and how the Private Practice Clinic will be managed.
Two residents will exit the clinic for hospital rotations. All other residents will begin a private-style practice at the Shaker Heights location. Since all Residents will have completed the Focused Experiences Clinic, the instructors at CDI will begin to help you grow in an authentic, day-to-day practice of dentistry in which you meet and examine your own patients, diagnose conditions, formulate comprehensive treatment plans, perform treatment, and schedule follow-up. These experiences will mimic what private practicing dentists face every day. As you grow in ability and decision-making quality, instructors will correspondingly provide less technical oversight, but remain available for consultation and assistance, as the need arises.
