CE Hours: 10 (Online)

Leadership in dentistry does not always come with a title. Many dental hygienists influence patient care, team communication, and practice success every day.

This 10-part online CE course for dental hygienists provides practical leadership tools you can apply immediately in the operatory and throughout your career.

Course Overview

Participants will learn how to strengthen leadership skills within the dental team while improving patient experience and practice workflows.

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

Identify everyday leadership opportunities in the dental setting and articulate first steps to act on them (Understand/Apply).
Apply structured communication models (“I” statements, active listening) to resolve team conflict while preserving patient trust and workflow (Apply).
Differentiate major leadership theories and styles (transformational, servant, situational, etc.) and select an approach appropriate to clinical and team contexts (Analyze/Evaluate).
Plan and support practice changes using simple frameworks (ADKAR, PDSA), including resistance strategies, and success measures (Apply/Create).
Analyze personal and systemic drivers of imposter syndrome and implement confidence-building behaviors that strengthen professional presence (Analyze/Apply).
Conduct performance conversations and design meaningful recognition aligned to shared standards of care and team motivators (Apply/Create).
Design and execute a small-scale QI cycle (aim, measures, test of change) to improve a patient-care or workflow outcome; report results with basic data (Create/Evaluate).
Translate clinical and leadership impact into targeted resume achievements and demonstrate interview readiness using STAR responses tied to patient outcomes (Create/Evaluate).
Develop a personal leadership action plan with 3–5 measurable goals spanning team development and patient-care quality (Create).
Evaluate how leadership behaviors influence patient experience, safety, and equity—and commit to practices that improve consistency of care across the team (Evaluate).

Schedule Overview

This course runs over 10 live online sessions (1 hour each) held weekly on Thursday evenings from 8:00–9:00 PM EST.

Bios:

Jessica Havens graduated from the University of South Dakota with her Bachelor’s of Science in Dental Hygiene in 2012. She worked as a research hygienist with the University of Colorado and in private practice in Washington State. Carpal tunnel and an international move prompted a career shift, and she began working in health governance and administration in 2019. In 2022, Jessica graduated from Royal Roads University with her MA in Health Leadership. She met Deb shortly after, and together they bonded over their vision of hygiene as an integrated and multifaceted healthcare role.