Trainee dental nurse Review
at Dental Design Studio
Level 3 Apprenticeship
Healthcare
North Walsham
Review Submitted: March 2026
Overall Rating
2.4 /5
The Overall Rating is the average of all the ratings given in each category. We take those individual ratings and combine them into one final score!
2/5
-
Overview of Role
4/5
-
Skills Development
2.2/5
-
Structure and Support
Overview of Role
Please give an overview of your role and what this involves on a day-to-day basis:
2/5
Working in surgery mostly as they dont allow the time for course work days due to staff shortages and only having trainees employed. Get told to add up time we have free in- between patients but that's not realistic.
To what extent do you enjoy your programme?
2/5
I enjoy the learning when i get given the time to learn but we're all usually behind on our off the job hours. Which makes me lose momentum and feel i have fallen behind because of the inconsistency.
Skills Development
Have you learnt any new skills or developed existing skills?
4/5
Definitely improved my communication and be open about my concerns.
Aswell leaning the Dental nurses roles and responsubilties as well understand dentistry.
Aswell leaning the Dental nurses roles and responsubilties as well understand dentistry.
Structure and Support
How well organised/structured is your programme?
1/5
Not very well. I wouldn't recommend it if someone actually wants to get it done with in the time they said it will be done unless you have lots of free time out of work. I have had many nights going to bed at 3am as i wouldn't have gotten this far without it. The company have so many Practice they dont understand the apprentices are struggling as there's only one qualified dental nurse and she can't juggle us all. We are all self learning and doing different things which is not ideal and we're learning from eachother. When a new trainee starts, us trainees are teaching them. We have 6 surgeries open majority of the time and 7 trainee dental nurses and one qualified Dental Nurse.
How much support do you receive from your employer?
2/5
Our manager is brilliant and she tries so hard but the company itself is where it lacks. As they just don't care about anything other than UDA targets being met and money coming in (that's what it seems to me anyway)
How much support do you receive from your training provider when working towards your qualifications?
4/5
My training provider (more so the tutor) is great i just wish they could put more pressure on the employer for our off the job hours being more consistent and actually receiving them, as i hear other training providers are.
How well do you feel that your qualification (through your training provider) helps you to perform better in your role?
3/5
So far there hasn't been too much that I've been able to implement into my work apart from the previous unit i have just done that inxluded the reprocessing. It actually made me realise the things that are being done wrong in the practice.
Are there extra-curricular activities to get involved in at your work? (For example, any social activities, sports teams, or even professional networking events.)
1/5
No
Recommendations & Advice
Would you recommend Dental Design Studio to a friend?
No
Why?
Because they don't give you the time contracted to do course work.
Only trainees work there apart from one qualified dental nurse, there's never consistently enough staff. People appear to give up on course work because the company had given them so little time to do it.
They have 6 surgeries open and not enough staff.
Only trainees work there apart from one qualified dental nurse, there's never consistently enough staff. People appear to give up on course work because the company had given them so little time to do it.
They have 6 surgeries open and not enough staff.
What tips or advice would you give to others applying to Dental Design Studio?
Don't. Not in north walsham anyway I've heard other practices aren't so bad under DDS. But I've heard other companies have much better perk and better pay rather than here where get the bare minimum which is why we can't get qualified staff.
