The GDC has launched new Student Fitness to Practise guidance. The guidance covers the types of professional behaviour and health standards expected of dental students, how fitness to practise can affect registration, when and how to make decisions about fitness to practise and the key elements of student fitness to practise procedures.
The guidance includes a table of the areas of concern which most commonly arise. However, it is not possible to produce an exhaustive list of all examples so issues must be dealt with on a case-by-case basis by appropriate investigators and panels.
The guidance also says that students' behaviour should be measured against the principles set out in the GDC's guidance document 'Standards for dental professionals' as well as against the training provider's own regulations. If a student's behaviour falls below these expected standards, the education provider should consider whether this amounts to a fitness to practise concern, and therefore warrants consideration through its formal procedures.
The guidance offers advice on how these procedures might be carried out by providing an example of what formal procedures might look like in practice.
There is also information about the kinds of action which might be taken in the event of issues being identified. These include giving warnings or imposing conditions.
