For seven years, I’ve had the honour of being the Registrar of the College of Dental Hygienists of British Columbia (CDHBC). I’m pleased and proud to speak to readers of the BCDHA blog about the work we do at the CDHBC in order to foster a greater understanding of the role of the regulator, and what it means in terms of self-regulation of the profession.
Regulators take their roles seriously, and we all feel the responsibility of our chief mandate: public protection. The health regulators of B.C., all 22 Colleges that oversee the 24 professions regulated under the Health Professions Act (HPA), have pooled our resources to develop a website that helps to inform the public and members of our respective professions about what we do. Most of us are acutely aware that the general public doesn’t really understand our role so about a year ago we made the choice to formalize the regulatory group and embark on an outreach campaign to educate the public about what the regulatory bodies do, and which health professionals are regulated by Colleges.