dental volunteering liability question

[blondie888]

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For those of you that were able to volunteer either at a private dental practice or a community dental clinic, how did it work out with the whole liability or worker's compensation rules? Because I wanted to volunteer at a local private practice and was told I can't because volunteers are not covered under the usual worker's compensation.
So if you volunteer in any dental setting, is the dental practice required to pay for you to be on some sort of liability?

 

[Blue Panther]

They are liable for paying the patient if you screw up. Try volunteering at a free/reduced cost dental clinic, they usually have programs already set up for volunteers.

Instead in private practice shadow a dentist. See what a dentist does on day to day basis and develop a professional relationship with him/her.

 

[AskJeeves]

For those of you that were able to volunteer either at a private dental practice or a community dental clinic, how did it work out with the whole liability or worker's compensation rules? Because I wanted to volunteer at a local private practice and was told I can't because volunteers are not covered under the usual worker's compensation.
So if you volunteer in any dental setting, is the dental practice required to pay for you to be on some sort of liability?

Complete B.S. What type of responsibility could they possibly give to you that could cause you to become liable for anything? The duties they usually give to you would be menial and I doubt they would let you get closer than 10 feet to a patient's teeth. Also, in terms of worker's comp, that would apply to employees who injure themselves during the course of work. You would not be an employee so there is no duty to cover you. There are even dentists that decline to provide malpractice or workers comp coverage to their own employees!

Many employers are using any excuse available to turn down volunteers because of the current wage controversy. What's happening is that certain volunteers/interns are given duties that they must be compensated for under state and federal regulations and employers were taking advantage of the free labor due to the down economy to get volunteers to do real work. A few states have been investigating this and some employers are practicing more caution in taking on volunteers.

 

[sfrice80]

Sounds like an uptight dentist to me. I shadowed about 5 dentists and never encountered that. I would suggest going outside a major city to shadow and if you hear that outside a major city practice, I would say they just don't want you shadowing.

 

[doc toothache]

Private practices may, at best, find "volunteers" helpful for a limited time and,at worst, an unreliable source of "help". The liability issue may be an excuse, however, should a "volunteer" trip and fall on a patient causing some serious damage, would there a question where the liability lies?

 

[blondie888]

Usually the dental practices in my city lets me shadow, but when i bring up the issue of volunteering, they stall and start talking about the whole liability thing.
So as a predental volunteer, just what exactly are you ALLOWED to do in a private practice or a dental clinic? I'm assuming volunteering for dental chair side assisting is not allowed?

 

[HASassin]

i have a possibly unrelated question.

in terms of the law of texas (or US)
what is a volunteer allowed to do?

i volunteered at a TMOM or community dental clinic, and assisted dentists and got some pretty good hands on experience. i want to include in my Personal statement that i helped pull some dangling peices of a drilled and fractured molar with pliers. technically this is "permanent work done" on a patients mout, but the dentist told me to,

could i include that? i dont know the exact terminology for what i was doing.

 

[doc toothache]

i have a possibly unrelated question.
in terms of the law of texas (or US) what is a volunteer allowed to do?
i volunteered at a TMOM or community dental clinic, and assisted dentists and got some pretty good hands on experience. i want to include in my Personal statement that i helped pull some dangling peices of a drilled and fractured molar with pliers. technically this is "permanent work done" on a patients mout, but the dentist told me to,
could i include that? i dont know the exact terminology for what i was doing.

It's a good thing he didn't tell you jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

 

[sassykat]

i have a possibly unrelated question.

in terms of the law of texas (or US)
what is a volunteer allowed to do?

i volunteered at a TMOM or community dental clinic, and assisted dentists and got some pretty good hands on experience. i want to include in my Personal statement that i helped pull some dangling peices of a drilled and fractured molar with pliers. technically this is "permanent work done" on a patients mout, but the dentist told me to,

could i include that? i dont know the exact terminology for what i was doing.

is it necessary to go into that much detail? you could just say you did hands on work and leave that out. that's what i would do.

 

[HASassin]

It's a good thing he didn't tell you jump off the Golden Gate Bridge.

lol it is a good thing. im trying to fix up this paper and send it back