RDH2001

The advanced dental hygiene practitioner is still a very foreign concept in all but about 2 or 3 states. Hopefully the field will one day get there, but I'm currently living in one of the several states that still do not even allow hygienists to administer local anesthesia (even though we have to address it on the national board.) We have a lonnnnnnng way to go before it gets there, and I don't think it will happen anytime soon. It's being pushed, but so has local anesthesia in my 13 years of practice and that has gone nowhere.

Really?! I've been an RDH 13 years and I'm thinking about getting a BSN through an academic partnership program. That is music to my ears. I'm so burnt out from hygiene. Even working more than 2 days a week throws my shoulder out of whack and I can't do it without seeing a chiro.

Hello, fellow RDH! How are you finding the transition? It seems like I am exactly in the same shoes that you were in a year or so ago. I would love some words of wisdom.

Hygiene school is very competitive to get in to, as is nursing, so I'm familiar with the process and the rigid requirements that each individual school holds to their applicants. I have done my research. I'm local to UTA, which has an academic partnership where courses are taught online and the clinicals are all typically over the weekend in area hospitals. The thing I'm looking for is whether or not other hygienists have similar experience and have entered the field from a similar background. Thanks!

Hi Everyone, It's very hard to find Registered Dental Hygienists that have jumped ship into the field of nursing, but I have found some closed threads on the topic. I have been an RDH since 2001 and have gradually hit the burn-out phase. Doing the same thing day in and day out is becoming extremely boring, and the fact that we're not able to accelerate our career in any way is very frustrating. Initially I planned on getting my masters and becoming a Physician Assistant, but that meant finishing my B.S. first and then hoping I could even get into a PA program. Then a friend told me about an accelerated BSN program that takes 15 months and I could become an RN and then look into becoming a Nurse Practitioner. Since many of these classes are online (and I have kids) it is VERY appealing!!! (Not to mention that as a hygienist I practically have all of the prerequisites already.) So that is where I am at now. I'm currently only working part time. I feel like I'm taking a step back (salary wise) to become an RN first (I would say I'm in the top salary bracket that a hygienist can get into), but that would give me 2 steps forward in getting out of hygiene and becoming an NP/PA later. It's like I've hit a mid life crisis and realized I don't want to be doing hygiene the rest of my life. Are there ANY RDHs out there who have been through this process, and are you glad you did it? I need some words of encouragement to say "i've been there, it's totally worth it!" before I look like the one insane hygienist that left a great salary just because I got bored.