CFM Exam Preparation Course

Education Programme Manager at the BDA, Elizabeth Clark, speaks to a dental nurse who took part in the BDA’s online course in Dental Radiography. Visit for more information CFM Exam Preparation Course

Liz Elliott qualified as a dental nurse in 1974 and has worked at Bosworth Dental Practice in Market Bosworth for the last four years. In June 2007 Liz sat the NEBDN exam in Dental Radiography for Dental Nurses and failed it, although only by a little. To prepare for the exam she had obtained the syllabus and gone through it with her dentist.

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However, they had no idea what depth of knowledge was needed for each subject or what were the most important points, hence her poor result.

Liz then took the BDA (British Dental Association) online course in radiography in September 2007 and passed the exam with flying colours in December. Liz very kindly agreed to be interviewed about her experience.

I thought it would be a benefit to me and my practice, and my practice agreed. It means that there is always someone present who is qualified to take radiographs.

What made you choose the BDA Radiography course?

I looked into all the courses that were available. There was a possibility of doing a course in Birmingham but I decided it was too far away. The BDA online course seemed ideal as it would be available to me where I was based and would not involve any travelling.

Before the course started I felt very nervous about it, I didn’t know what to expect, but I actually found it very easy to use when I started. The beauty of it was the fact that you could listen again and again to anything you didn’t understand. Eric Whaites was clear and concise in his explanations and the diagrams used to illustrate the information were very good. The textbook provided was also very good.

I thought it was an amazing course and would recommend it. However, you do need to be prepared to work and put the hours in. It is worth making use of all the information provided, the revision notes, the textbook and the guidance notes. I would advise anyone doing the course to read everything provided as the more background you have the more you understand and the easier it all becomes.

It was hard to take all the radiographs required for the practical portfolio; I had to visit other practices to take some of the less common radiographs. So I would advise starting the portfolio as soon as possible.

The best thing was being able to listen again and again to the things that were difficult. It was also good because if you were tired at the end of a busy day and didn’t feel like reading, you could just sit and listen to the course. I felt that listening and watching really helped the information to go in, and I could recall what Eric had said about topics very easily afterwards.

What was the worst thing about the course?

It was a totally positive experience; it was new and novel – which made it interesting.

The last time I did any studying was two years ago when I did an OU Openings course and level one in humanities. I found the BDA course far easier than studying with the OU which was very reading based and working by yourself. With the BDA course I felt that there was help all the way through the course, all the answers were there in the course, and the more I did the more it made sense as later modules built on previous ones.

As a result of gaining the radiography certificate I have taken on new responsibilities at work – I am now the Radiation Protection Supervisor for my practice.

How has the radiography course changed your aspirations?

I would like to do more studying and would be interested in doing another online course.

The BDA online course in Dental Radiography is presented by Mr Eric Whaites of King’s College London. Since its launch in 2005 over 900 dental nurses have used the course to help them gain the NEBDN certificate in radiography which is a benefit to the whole dental practice. An online course provides great flexibility; all that is needed is a computer with broadband, allowing nurses to choose when and where they study. This makes it so much easier to fit study around work and family commitments.

Based on the success of this course the BDA hopes to launch another online course in Oral Health Education in 2009.