As Practice Managers, we have the constant task of getting to grips with new legislation and guidance. It can be a minefield separating the good advice from what can sometimes be “bad advice” or more often than not, simply an opinion with little evidence base.
The dental community can be brilliant and especially for a PM, which can be a little isolating, to be able to share ideas and work systems with each other. However, what does worry and concern me is that I frequently see questionable and incorrect advice on the various online fora out there.
A good number of PMs come to me for help and guidance but I would never deem myself an expert in areas such as HR and Compliance. And these days, especially in the case of social media, “everyone’s an expert” is becoming a more and more frequent occurrence.
So what can we deem as “Good advice?”
We should be asking ourselves whether the process used in providing the advice is precisely as prescribed and in line with the relevant regulator and what role the prescriber of the information plays.
Advisers should provide advice that meets the minimum standard requirement. In addition, it is very useful for us to be advised of “best practice” in scenarios such as HR and compliance but unofficial advice and guidance can often result in scaremongering, panic and causing PMs mountains of unnecessary work.
Beware of ulterior motives or sometimes beware of someone just wanting their own publicity for public standing. In particular, on public forums, I’ve witnessed, people being unfairly scrutinised or belittled by people who themselves are not in a position of expertise to do so.
Some questions you should be asking yourself when taking advice:
- What is that person’s job role?
- What experience do they have in that field?
- Are they regulated and what connections do they have with those regulators?
- Is it their information to share (it is illegal to share templates/documents that are the intellectual property or copyrighted)?
- Is the information up to date?