Behind a Smile with Dr. Shauntel Ambrose

Leading with Excellence: Anri Bernardo on Navigating Healthcare Leadership and the Future of Oral Hygiene in South Africa

• Shauntel Ambrose

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Ever thought about how leadership and collaboration shape the healthcare industry? We have Anri Bernardo, the President of OHASA, joining us to share her leadership style and how she navigates the challenges of managing a diverse team spread across different regions. She reveals how she keeps her team engaged, motivated, and focused on their common goals. 

Anri provides insights into the evolving trends in the field, the role of technology, and why continuous learning is vital. 

 We also invite you, our listeners, to interact with us, share your thoughts, and pose questions for our upcoming episodes. Today, we are celebrating the real-life heroes of healthcare, their leadership, their innovation, and their unwavering commitment to excellence.

Speaker 1:

I'm Shantel Ambrose and I'm a dentist, and I host a healthcare business podcast that shares tips from the healthcare industry leaders. So, whether you're a startup or needing a push in the right direction, a family business or just looking for mentorship, join us. Today we have a very important case, and something that's again very close to what I like to advocate is proper oral healthcare requires quite a lot of sophistication and expertise, and today to answer all of our questions is the President of AHASA. Now I want to tell you a little bit about the President of AHASA. She is Anri Bernardo and she is situated in the Western Cape. She has an amazing amount of skills and I am very excited to actually have her on board. So welcome, anri.

Speaker 2:

Thank you. Thank you, dr, for the opportunity on your platform. I really appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

So, listen, we met when you invited me to see four ethics at AHASA, national and the one thing.

Speaker 1:

I do speak and I have spoken for over 13 years of many organizations in the Sahara country and I've been lucky enough to interact at that level but I'm most impressed by AHASA, and your leadership, and the amount of teamwork that goes in so seamlessly is remarkable. When I arrived at AHASA this year and I met team at large, it was almost like everyone talks to each other every day, as though you guys are working in one day, and then I was so shocked here that every single person I'm talking to comes from a different part of South Africa. That, for me, is absolutely unique. It shows really tremendous leadership. I'm really wanting to hear about us maybe sharing the tips about how are you getting that right? How are you getting everyone on board at that level of open communication all the time? So we're going to be talking about I want you to first give us an idea, give the audience an idea of the role that you are managing being the president of an association is quite a big task, and I always say I'm not a dictator.

Speaker 2:

So my first role is to support my team, because if there's no support of a leader, your team will just fall apart. So I do have amazing people working with us on the team and one of my biggest roles is to chair meetings, make sure there's an ongoing planning process and communication process between myself and the rest of the team and then, very important as well, I'm very involved in the engagement meetings with our stakeholders and different universities, sponsors and traders, which is very important, and then managing a lot of emails, a lot of questions, a lot of email. And then but I cannot do it without my team. So we are a national expert team consisting of myself as the president, then it is the president-elect, which is Col Gilbert, and then we have a secretary, a treasurer, and we also have the immediate boss, president, who is Stella Lambracht, and she has been part of our HRSA for many years. I can just always pick up the phone and say, stella, I need help with this. What do you think? Please advise?

Speaker 2:

Then we have International Federation of the Intelligent and Representative on the XCO. We also have our HRSA Journal Editor on the XCO, as well as a CPD committee. So that part is very important with accreditation processes and things like that. And then we have our different branches as well with the committee. So communication is a very important part of this association. We have WhatsApp groups, we have emails, so we do stay in contact with each other daily and Saturday, sundays. Here we just have to, because that is what makes the association and the team is the teamwork and the association and, like I said, I'm there to support them and not to dictate them, and I think that should be a good leadership quality to have if you want to run something like this.

Speaker 1:

You know, it's really remarkable because your leadership you know there's been the different ways that people lead and I think that when you're part of your team and when your members that you knew as leadership that is able to cross board, then sit at the top, give up, come on, I think that it's very in keeping with what the current standard best-ended management currently. It's beautiful to see and I think you're doing it very well, very well indeed.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

I was blown away by your Congress. I really was. I had no idea that you had invited an international audience. Now tell us a little bit about the behind the scenes. Who was invited? How did you manage all of this? Because, you know, when we host tongue-wesses, not all of us have an online platform where we now also having something live recorded where people are able to actually participate at a level Really amazing.

Speaker 2:

So you know, with COVID-19, I think for a lot of people it was a devastating time, but there was also some stuff coming out of COVID-19 that was a positive thing and that is where the virtual attendees, or where the virtual platform comes in. On our association, we started making use of more virtual opportunities, webinars, to try and keep our association, our members, together by still getting access to the latest knowledge and technologies and speakers that can present on a virtual and webinar platform this year. We started last year with our first national conference at our hostel and we are very proud of ourselves. Yeah, because it was quite, it was very successful last year and this year we continued it to combine our annual general meeting with the national conference. So we invited all our members were invited. We invited non-members, which consists of dentists, dental therapists, dental assistants, but Ahasa is also a member country of the International Federation of Dental Hygienists I mean short IFDH and the IFDH has 32 member countries and Ahasa extended their virtual invite to all of those 32 countries through the HODs of each member country. We were very lucky to have them all on the virtual platform. It was quite a big thing for us, yeah, together with our members and non-members that also attended the virtual platform.

Speaker 2:

So to plan a conference like this and including a virtual component, it's quite a lot of planning and admin. But we have a great team working together and Cole Gilbert, who is the Ahasa's president-elect. He's quite tech savvy so we learn a lot from him and each and every year we just try to build on that. But there's a lot of planning going into this national conferences and especially when you have a virtual component because it's live, so you need to inform everyone, you need to get the speakers on board, you need to get the venue on board and all the technologically things that goes with that. But we are very fortunate to have that and to do that. We're definitely going to keep on doing that because it just broadens our area of where health professionals can join our association and our CBD seminars or webinars.

Speaker 1:

I really think that it is an exceptional triumph and I really congratulate you and I congratulate Ahasa at large and your team because it was really seamlessly pulled off. I know just from my experience is that you're not an easy thing to do and to make it look seamless by a large amount of expertise, so super well done. Now I know that you're involved in government healthcare and I know that your heart is also about increasing that umbrella of all healthcare communities and that you're very interactive in universities and being able to now find a way to actually reach more of where you are in a clinic currently and what the situation are like and what you think could even help to make that situation a lot more efficient as a stand.

Speaker 2:

So for the past eight years I've been employed in the Department of Health, wasting Cabe, as an oral hygienist at a primary healthcare facility, and that is where my heart is actually coming. From private practice into public health care is the community, the community health, part of your profession and which I really enjoyed and which I really love and have a passion for. I think currently at all across the world, in our primary healthcare clinics the main issue is understaff and overpopulated. And when I say overpopulated I'm referring to the increase of people making use of public services. Due to the country's current economic status, and after COVID-19 especially, there is a big influx of people making use of the public services, but there's not enough staff, there's not enough improved technology to deal with the influx of people, and that is quite a sad part to see because you always think of the future and where are we heading to? And if we don't have enough staff to treat the amount of people coming into your primary healthcare facilities, then that is going to become a really a big issue. So with the primary healthcare, my focus there is basically on promotion and prevention of disease, which includes my oral hygiene treatment and your fish and sealant programs, school programs, ecd programs, as well as assistance in other community programs by promoting oral health, and sometimes it is in areas where you don't have all the resources but you try and with what you have.

Speaker 2:

And I think for the primary healthcare facilities, maybe the private sector should also take hands with the public healthcare facilities and the government to say look here, this is the improved technologies that are needed to give all the people the best treatment, and we need to take hands.

Speaker 2:

I feel there is still quite a bit of a big gap between private and government and we need to start closing that gap because, like I mentioned before, more and more people are making use of public healthcare facilities. It's not necessary people that don't have jobs, it's people that do have jobs. They lost their medical aids, they lost their income during Covid and they are now reluctant or they now, you know, forced to make use of the public healthcare facilities. And not all public healthcare facilities are bad. Sometimes we see on television or on the radio this is what happened in this kind of facility, but it's not always the case and it's because of the influx of people and the understaff and not enough resources available that we are starting to not get the best out of the primary healthcare facilities than what we should.

Speaker 1:

I hear you. You know recently in fact, I heard somebody come to me and is part of the government health system. We've had um lead waves in our waves and so they were just describing to me giving surgery. And remember we have load shedding and an air conditioner that was working in the clinic. So what has happened was that they had continued, of course, in what was a 42 degree heat, the air conditioner was not fixed for the full two days, but the patient was sitting and waiting and you must understand that you're not thinking that when you're going to the clinic you can't be turned away, because I mean the perspective of people that are using Linux, that often they're making great sacrifices to get there.

Speaker 1:

They actually wait a really long period of time before they get there. They have to think about transport costs, they think about family costs, they think about food costs before they get into the clinic. So you can't tell somebody that's been waiting in queue for days on end, sometimes months on end, for surgery but I'm sorry, your air conditioner is not working. It's not the stock working under those facilities. It's not the same story in every hospital, but we have this increasing stress and burden because of the demand on the public system. As you rightly say, most COVID, there's been a lot of job last year, 40% less hospital income. A lot of medical aids are no longer affordable by many people. They've had to drop their plans and so when they get sick they need to go somewhere.

Speaker 1:

And so I hear you and it is something that we're going to be talking about later on some of our other episodes. I appreciate that. Thank you anyone that is in the system and telling us really what's happening, and we do appreciate that every single system is different. I absolutely agree with you. Some of the most amazing care comes from our government. Our gay people and some of the most motivated and passionate people are part of the government public system in South Africa. So what I also wanted to know part of your role that you mentioned was, say, called engaged and so on. It made a large part of our businesses and our CPG and how we're able to bring education to more people. So can you give us a little bit of a background now of these kind of relationships? How do you facilitate these relationships, who are you looking out for and how does it all happen?

Speaker 2:

So at Ahasa we are really privileged to have an amazing support and relationship with our dedicated traders. We always try to keep them in the loop with Ahasa affairs and we invite them to engage with meetings because their voice is also very important to us. And since last year we've actually introduced a platform where we meet with our dental traders, or traders at large, once a year in person to discuss any opportunities, any sponsorship opportunities, but also for them to tell us where can Ahasa improve From their perspective, what can we do for them as a company, but in return, what they can also do for the association and our members, and that is quite successful. We've done it this year again and I can just say the opportunities is just getting bigger and bigger and bigger and I'm quite excited about that.

Speaker 2:

Unfortunately I cannot mention any company names or so, but we do really have companies that supporting us each and every year and with their support they just grew bigger and bigger and bigger for next year and we're really looking forward with the engagements and the involvement for the next few years. We also try and always open our door to any other company. It doesn't have to be a dental company to come and join our association, to come to our seminars, meet our members and to also share their knowledge and their involvement in Ahasa. So I think that is something that we started last year and it's quite successful. We do engage with our traders on a weekly, on a monthly basis. We are really without our traders, Ahasa cannot fulfill all its duties and we're really privileged and grateful for them.

Speaker 1:

Listen, I really want to give a shout out to them because they really do facilitate our educational capacity in each organization that they are able to support. I do think that they've done a fantastic job and I think they're also invited.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if I may just add, also since last year we actually incorporated hands-on workshops in our national conference, where some of these dental companies are really coming in, and that is a big part which we're trying to improve to offer our members hands-on workshops, Because you know, some of our members as myself I mean I've qualified 11, 12 years ago and you need to keep up with the latest technologies and a lecture cannot always do that for you and that's where the dental companies come in. And this year at our national conference we had a laser workshop and we have a guided bathroom workshop where the company comes in and they source a speak to give the theoretical component to the members and then the hands-on workshops. So that is something that we're really looking forward to, and to do more to collaborate with our dental companies to have more of these hands-on workshops.

Speaker 1:

It's phenomenal actually, because the hands-on workshop I was just explaining to one of our learners that you can be a contesting jitter academic Once you go from that head that does not move, that you're practicing, on to the head that swallows and actually is needing to move and needing to close and needing to celebrate.

Speaker 1:

The suction's not comfortable, but then the suction, then I'm gagging it's a ball game. It is not a ball game. So the more hands-on that you get, the skill set becomes almost like a muscle memory, the start of that muscle memory that really gets you to that point of the suction. In this career that we are in, you know you're constantly evolving. I'm very excited by some of the digital supported oral care that we have coming in. I don't know if you want to touch base on that actually, because I see that there are some new products now that are available that I've just recently been looking at that does meet that digital sort of keeping up with the global standard of oral care like laser wind.

Speaker 2:

So how is?

Speaker 1:

laser being used for oral hygiene.

Speaker 2:

Look, the scope of practice of oral hygienists is expanding and there was an extension of the scope of practice twice already now and we are looking definitely at the third one.

Speaker 2:

It is lying at the health ministers on his desk.

Speaker 2:

So once that's promulgated, the members will definitely have to upskill themselves, and one of the things is laser treatments, and where the laser treatments comes in for oral hygiene treatment is your of the periodontal treatment of the patient, as well as whitening procedures, and it's stuff that's coming up now that we never thought that we would be able to do. But, like I said, we need to move forward with the times. We cannot stagnate our own profession because this is only what our initial scope of practice said. We need to move forward with times and that is why, like I mentioned, that's where the companies are coming in and they really bring us the latest advanced technology so that we can broaden our profession. But I always say for the oral hygienists or the oral hygiene profession, your main focus is still your promotion and prevention. So if you conclude all the latest technologies and still have that in the back of your mind promotion and prevention then I think we are getting there and we don't want to stagnate as a profession, we want to grow it.

Speaker 1:

And that's what you definitely are doing. I think it was a couple years ago that we've become more and more available of private oral hygienists in private practice and I always touch base with that, and I know that when you go into private practice as an oral hygienist, there are a fair amount of tips involved and things that you need to know about. So what tips do you have to anyone or any of the oral hygienists that are missing out today? What sort of tips do you have before they go into private practice? If they want you to make that move into private practice now, do you have anything that should just give them in terms of advice?

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I'm just thinking back the time when I started fresh from university into private practice. I cried for two weeks because it was quite a shock and you need to go in with that mindset of you're going to be busy and you're going to see patients. It's not like you will see a patient. You know only one or two patients for the day. So it's quite a big shock. But you need to discover yourself and you need to go in with an open mindset and you need to be open to change.

Speaker 2:

Not every practice is the same, but you as an oral hygienist going out there, you need to know who you are and no one can take away your qualification from you. And you need to be confident You're going to make mistakes. Don't hide your mistakes. Keep moving forward and learn from everything. If you do make a mistake, learn from it. If a colleague is giving you advice, whether the colleague has qualified 20, 30 years ago, listen to that advice because you can maybe learn something from it and make connections. Please don't live in silos, and that is where Ohasa is coming in, where it's really the platform for young oral hygienists just coming out of university now into private practice, which can be very daunting to make that connections at Ohasa, to get that support. And that is also what Ohasa is there for to give you the support. And then I always say be patient with yourself and, most importantly, treat everyone, including your patients and your colleagues and yourself, with the utmost dignity and respect and you will start young.

Speaker 1:

I think you could take that thing in any part of the health profession that we have in our business. So I really appreciate that. Now, do you have any educational groups and communication structures when you're a member of a HRSA that you're able to benefit from?

Speaker 2:

Yes. So we always promote our HRSA as not only CPD, yes, but we do have a lot of CPD seminars. So currently, how HRSA is run, we have four different branches in the Western Cape, halting, eastern Cape and KZN under the National umbrella. So all of these branches plan the CPD seminars and then National also comes in and we plan the National conference as well, as we have quite a lot of webinars partnered with different stakeholders and companies. So there's always a lot of opportunity for our members to engage in these educational seminars and webinars.

Speaker 2:

And then we also have an amazing HRSA journal and we've been trying to get this journal accredited for years now and the only way how we're going to get that accredited is if oral hygienists start writing up their cases and start writing in these journals. So we really encourage our profession, our oral hygienists, to get out there write up your cases. It can be something small, but just to start with that to put in our journal. So in our HRSA journal we also have CPD questionnaires where the members can also make use of that to earn their CPD points. On our current website we have a knowledge share section as well where members can share knowledge with each other and do a little bit of a discussion around, say, for instance, a specific topic, and I can say that now we're very excited.

Speaker 2:

We are launching our new HRSA website on the 1st of January and we gave our members a little glimpse of it at the HM. And a very exciting part of this new website it's going to be public facing, but health professions facing as well, so the public will also be able to go onto our website, our HRSA website, and learn about tooth sensitivity, learn about bad breath. So we're very exciting about that and we want the members also to get involved in that. And then we on a regular basis send out communication to all our members via emails, social media, website and journal. So we are really trying to get our members involved in educational programs and planning that for them as well.

Speaker 1:

That's fantastic. I think that it's. One of the greatest strengths of HRSA is that the collaboration that we had with the three of my sectional is extremely exemplary. I'm wanting to know, just in terms of what do you think will await the future of our hygiene staff in onions?

Speaker 2:

So, as I mentioned earlier, if you look at the oral hygiene scope of practices that are being expanded and going to be expanded maybe for you know another expansion or another two or three expansions your oral hygiene is really moving forward. With the latest evidence-based treatments and technology and with independent private practice coming into effect a few years ago, the oral hygiene profession really has a big opportunity to build our profession and to not let our professions stagnate. So I really think the future of the oral hygiene is bright. It's just we as clinicians need to upskill ourselves regularly so that the profession does not stagnate and that we move forward with times.

Speaker 1:

Okay, now you know, listen, I've been speaking to a lot of people in these power positions and I know for a fact that it is difficult to chair meetings. Now you're working, now you're running still a home, you're still meeting people and you know communicating with all of the different national organizations. Then you know you're engaging with food stakeholders and you know it is quite a tremendous amount on your shoulders even though you're looking so calm and cool and connected. So do you have any tips? How do you keep the balance going?

Speaker 2:

I'm 33 years old only now. So I know a lot of people say enjoy your life. But you know, when you make a decision and you are dedicated to something, you are dedicated to something and I've learned through the years that you need to take one day at a time. Yes, you must have goals, you can have a five-year plan, but tomorrow and the future is not guaranteed, and that is why you need to take one day at a time. And I can have my list. I can have my list, but each day tomorrow will never, it will never turn out like I planned it or I wanted it.

Speaker 2:

So you need to wake up in the morning with that mind said. I'm going to take on today as it comes and you need to have a very good supporting structure. I'm sure Dr Yu as well can vouch for that. If you don't have a supporting structure at home with your family and friends, it can become quite lonely in our professions as well as being part of such a big organisation. And, like I said, I have the most amazing support from the team that I'm working with and my family and friends. When they ever hear the word ohasa, they know I need their support now, yeah, and then I say you need to take the first sip of coffee in the morning. I love coffee, so I've always. You need to embrace the aroma and the quietness of that first sip and just set your mind for the day. That's what I'm trying to do, your.

Speaker 1:

What are you doing it? Very well, you're doing it very well. I commend you. I am so excited. I don't think you are already the presence of our heart. I don't even know what you're going to blow us away with in the future. I wish you all the luck.

Speaker 2:

Thank you.

Speaker 1:

You must be very proud of the accomplishments that you've made. I truly mean that. It was one of my favourite fun races this year and I was very privileged to attend. So thank you for all that you're doing for education in oral health care. It is really great work for you and your team. Well done.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, doctor, thank you for being part of us, for being part of our profession as well. We appreciate that.

Speaker 1:

We have come at starting up and had to turn your vision into a business, and in our future episodes we look at leadership. We look at multi-practice success. I'm grateful for you and I would love to hear your ideas. What questions do you need answered? Please drop me a mail at behindasmile2atchillailcom. I look forward to hearing from you and remember you are heard, you are seen and on this platform you are invited. Let's make it happen together.