Is membership a bargain?

Bill Suen DHAA CEO

IT IS PROBABLY fair to assume that we all want to enjoy a professionally satisfying and financially rewarding career in oral health that provides a good work-life balance.

To achieve this, one must meet all AHPRA registration standards, including CPD, professional indemnity insurance, recency of practice, scope of practice and criminal history. While the Dental Board, as a regulator, sets these standards, it is the peak association, such as the DHAA, that guides and helps its members to comply with the standards via its ongoing advice, support and education activities. Besides getting a comprehensive CPD selection including a minimum of 20 hours of free online CPD per year, DHAA membership offers support in every aspect of your career and professional needs, including but not limited to:

• Affordable professional indemnity insurance

• Advice on clinical and practice matters

• Industrial relations support and advice line

• Peer support program

• Networking events to local and national colleagues - F2F and virtual

• Ongoing updates of development and changes to dental practice

• Employment and recruitment services and advice

• Business advise and business development support

• Member discounts on a wide range of products and services (including financial services, car purchases, laptops, white goods, general retail, entertainment and holidays etc)

While you are at work, there are ongoing challenges from constant changes in regulations, emerging practice and technology, workplace pressure, inter and intra-professional relationships, as well as maintaining a healthy work-life balance. The DHAA keeps you up to date and offers a range of advice and support.

You should not need to practise in isolation as DHAA connects you to people, organisations and resources that you need throughout your career. All you need to do is to email us and post your question.

It's plain to see that the DHAA offers a one-stop-shop for everything you need to navigate all these challenges and save you lots of time if you were to seek out help from multiple sources and connections. While it is true that you can Google just about everything nowadays and get some fairly instant responses, you are also subject to a huge risk of misinformation, and online scams, often coupled with hidden agendas and self-interests.

Besides supporting individuals, the advocacy work being done by the DHAA helps the profession collectively. We constantly act on behalf of you, to rectify inappropriate regulations, support the development of new models of care, explore funding sources and create new career opportunities so the profession continues to grow and progress through time.

All these DHAA activities help your pursuit of a professionally satisfying and financially rewarding career in oral health, and the one-stop-shop set up saves you precious time and contributes towards your healthy worklife balance.

The DHAA has your back, and your investment is less than $0.90 a day fully tax deductible ($0.15 for new graduates) - is this a bargain?