Sarah qualified as a Registered General Nurse, in 1990, and has a long and well established career working within a variety of health care settings, in both the NHS and Private sector, in areas including infectious diseases, respiratory, hematology and cardiac medicine. Sarah has been a team leader, student mentor and responsible for hospital based policy setting in infection control.

Sarah has always had a passion for the importance of communication in the health care setting and obtained a first class Honors degree in Health & Nursing Studies in 1997, which focused predominantly on communication studies, counseling and health promotion. Sarah went on to obtain her Nurse Tutor qualification and PGCE in adult education in 1998.

Sarah is the manager of the practice and  her wealth of experience has enabled the practice to be successfully inspected on numerous occasions by the LHB, Postgraduate Department and Health Inspectorate Wales.

If you would like to book Sarah for a lecture or discuss any lecture requirements you may have then please contact her at sarahhill@parkplacedental.co.uk.

Communication Lecture

Communication is central to all human interactions, as it is the means by which we connect with others in order to convey or receive information. For the dental team it is hugely important as it underpins all staff and patient interactions and every practice system, procedure and policy. Possessing excellent communication skills is vital for the dental team as it enables them to build trusting relationships with patients and ultimately achieve successful outcomes. It also allows them to better manage the many communication challenges they face in the workplace e.g. complaints, staff difficulties, the difficult patient, discussing treatments etc.

However, before we can hope to acquire excellent communication skills we must have a clear understanding of the process of communication itself and also those factors which play a huge role in positively or negatively affecting it. Having equipped ourselves with this knowledge we are then better able to work on developing those skills which dramatically improve communication. These skills can then be applied to specific practice scenarios where communication can prove difficult. The subject areas which I cover are outlined in the diagram below.

I can cover these topics individually or I can also draw together aspects of these topics to tailor the teaching session for a specific audience group. I would suggest that the ‘Theory & Practice of Communication’ teaching session should precede all of the other topic areas that are outlined below, as without covering the basics, any practical application will be less effective. Please contact me to tailor any specific days you may need covered.

List of Sarah’s Lectures