Managing Emotions in Complaints Handling: A guide for Dental Professionals

About This Course

A course on handling complaints in dental practice, with topics such as emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, effective communication, and implementing change based on feedback and complaint analysis.

Why Take This Course?

The course addresses a common challenge faced by UK dental professionals, which is how to effectively handle patient complaints. Complaints can be emotionally charged and stressful, and they can damage the dentist-patient relationship if not handled properly. This course teaches dental professionals how to manage their emotions, build trust with patients, and repair relationships after complaints. It also provides practical strategies for effective communication and conflict resolution, which can help prevent complaints from escalating. By learning these skills, dental professionals can improve the quality of patient care and maintain positive relationships with their patients.

The course is beneficial because it covers a wide range of topics related to complaints management in dental practice, including emotional intelligence, conflict resolution, effective communication, and implementing change based on feedback. It provides practical strategies for managing emotions and repairing patient relationships after complaints, and encourages reflection and growth in handling complaints.

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How This Course Supports GDC Enhanced Dental CPD

“Dental professionals have a duty to keep their knowledge and skills up to date. A primary qualification is only the first step in their education and development which should last throughout their professional life” General Dental Council

Learning Objectives	Anticipated Outcomes
1: By the end of this course, learners will be able to define and explain the core principles of people management within a dental practice setting.	1: Upon completion of the course, participants are expected to demonstrate enhanced complaint handling skills rooted in an understanding and respect for patient rights.
2: Upon completion, learners will have the capacity to use efficient techniques of communication within the team, as well as with patients and other stakeholders.	2: As a result of this course, learners will likely contribute to improved patient experiences and satisfaction rates within their dental practices.
3: Participants will demonstrate their ability to effectively delegate tasks among team members, ensuring smooth functioning and increased productivity at their dental practices.	3: The course should lead to greater professional empathy and assertiveness in managing patient feedback, ultimately enhancing the dentist-patient relationship.
4: By the final session, learners will have mastered conflict resolution strategies, allowing them to mitigate and prevent disputes within the team.	4: In the wider context, the course aims to contribute to the overall reputation and trust in dental practices by promoting a constructive view towards patient complaints and their resolution.
5: At the course’s conclusion, attendees will have developed the competency to monitor team performance, give constructive feedback, and manage underperformance in their dental practices.	5: Following the course, the expectation is that attendees will be empowered to apply the learned strategies to continually reflect on and learn from complaints, turning them into opportunities for practice improvement and professional growth.

Regulatory Standards

GDC	CQC
✅ A – Effective Communication ✅ B – Effective Management ✅ C – Maintenance in Field of Practice ✅ D – Maintenance in Patient Confidence	✅ Caring ✅ Effective ✅ Leadership ✅ Responsive ✅ Safe

🕐 90 minutes of Enhanced Dental CPD

Course Description

The course covers understanding complaints in dental practice, emotional intelligence in complaints handling, practical strategies for managing emotions, building trust and repairing patient relationships after complaints, and reflection and growth after handling complaints. Specific topics covered include the importance of complaints management, identifying types of complaints, the complaints process, role of empathy, conflict resolution, techniques for cooling down emotion-driven confrontations, effective communication techniques, and implementing change based on feedback and complaint analysis.

Course Outline

Section 1

Section 1 of the course covers the importance of complaints management, identifying types of complaints, the complaints process, the role of empathy in complaints handling, analyzing complaints through a case study, and understanding emotional intelligence in complaints handling.

Section 2

This section of the course covers the importance of complaints management and the complaints process, as well as the role of empathy in complaints handling. It also explores emotional intelligence and its relevance in complaints handling, with techniques for developing emotional intelligence and applying it in real-time situations. The section goes on to provide practical strategies for managing emotions, including emotional self-awareness, conflict resolution, and techniques for de-escalating situations. Additionally, the section covers building trust and repairing patient relationships after complaints, and the process of reflection and growth after handling complaints.

Section 3

Section 3 of the course focuses on practical strategies for managing emotions in complaints handling. It covers emotional self-awareness, conflict resolution, de-escalating situations, and techniques for cooling down emotion-driven confrontations. It also emphasizes the importance of building trust and repairing patient relationships after complaints and provides effective communication techniques for apologizing and reassuring patients. Finally, the section concludes with reflecting on and learning from complaints to continuously improve in managing emotions in complaints handling.

Section 4

Section 4 of this course focuses on Building Trust and Repairing Patient Relationships after Complaints. The section highlights the importance of trust in dentist-patient relationships and provides strategies to rebuild and maintain trust after complaints. Effective communication techniques for apologizing and reassuring patients are also discussed. The section includes a case study to illustrate how to apologize and rebuild trust. Finally, the section emphasizes reflection and growth after handling complaints, including individual reflection, team feedback, and designing action plans for future complaints.

Section 5

Section 5 of this course covers the importance of reflection and growth after handling complaints. It includes individual and team reflection, implementing change based on feedback, designing action plans for future complaints, continuous improvement through learning and reflection, and a review and summary of managing emotions in complaints handling.

Course Reviews

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Great course! I appreciated the emphasis on emotional intelligence in handling complaints. The techniques for de-escalating confrontations were extremely helpful.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
This course was eye-opening. I never realized how much impact effective communication could have on managing complaints. The module on conflict resolution was especially valuable.

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
I found this course to be very practical and applicable to my day-to-day work. The strategies for repairing patient relationships after complaints were spot on. Highly recommend!

✅ Met Course Objectives

✅ Met Course Outcomes

✅ Would Recommend

✅ Had Positive Impact

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