The RA Coach - Background information

A Little Background for You

 

 

I qualified in Manchester in 1975 and went directly into GDP.  By 1977 I had undertaken manufacturer’s training and as an Associate in an NHS practice, introduced a “Relative Analgesia (RA)” service – having invested in the equipment myself!

I owned my own practice in Newbury Berkshire from Jan 1989 - October 2012, remaining as a part-time Associate until August 2014.

In 2001 I had a brief conversation with well-known Dental Business Coach  -  Chris Barrow, during an advanced and very intensive, 1-year dental practice management course.

The subject of the conversation was – Why should I come to your dental practice? What makes you stand out?

What is your USP?

Sitting around a boardroom table with about 6-8 other dental practice owners and being the last to be asked the question, it soon became clear that I was not the only one enhancing the standard of my Aesthetic Dentistry – having gained a “Full Membership” of B.A.A.D. in 1999 and not the only one introducing dental implants (having started to study the topic in the mid-1980s) – so how could I differentiate myself from my colleagues at that table?

Well I had been utilising “RA” since 1977 to the great benefit of many patients and something that possibly only 2-5% of GDPs then were able to offer.

Chris asked me whether it was a subject I could teach, dubbed me the “RA Coach” and gave me permission to pursue this idea.

By Jan 2003 I had developed a course, sufficiently different from what was then on offer by SAAD for example was ready to offer this to interested colleagues.

There has been much water under the bridge since then. The much favoured US and UK terminology of “RA” has waned in favour of “Inhalation(al) sedation” - shortened to IS or IHS.

Several iterations of Dental Sedation guidelines starting in particular in 2003, 2011 then importantly in 2015 and again in 2017 has changed what and how I have been able to pass on my experience and the requirements of  Dentists, DCPs and Dental Nurses involved

A one-day course with practitioners able to self-determine their own competence in 2003 has changed into a 3-day course to include me supervising candidate’s first 10 cases around the UK and since 2017 in Ireland too with what has become a well-tried 2-day structured program – even delivered to one GDP in Cyprus!

So to the name. “The RA Coach” has effectively become my brand. However what I do in fact is not really coaching at all but to act as a didactic teacher, a one-to-one mentor (before, during and after the 3-day accredited courses) and finally as an assessor to appraise candidates with the aim of signing off their competence, feeding back and reporting to them. 

It remains open to me to decline to sign off a candidate if I am not satisfied that they have demonstrated their professional approach and that they can safely and successfully assess and provide inhalation sedation for a range of patients and complete all of the required clinical governance record keeping.

So despite the fact I am not technically coaching I will retain the brand name for the time being.

Richard Charon