CA Dental Hygiene Law & Ethics study plan

Map every supervision category (general, direct, indirect, unsupervised/extended) onto a self-built grid showing who may perform what and under whose authority

Distinguish delegable from non-delegable duties for registered dental hygienists and record the rationale for each exclusion

Classify 25 self-written clinical scenarios by required supervision level and cite the governing rule for each

List the settings in which a registered dental hygienist may practice and note which settings change the supervision requirement

Outline extended functions (including those requiring additional certification or board approval) and state the prerequisite training for each

Sequence the steps a hygienist must complete before performing a newly authorized procedure in a new practice setting

Define patient autonomy, informed consent, and fiduciary duty in your own words with one dental-hygiene example each

Identify three boundary or dual-role situations common in hygiene practice and describe the ethically correct response to each

Break informed consent into its required elements and draft a plain-language consent conversation script for a scaling and root planing case

Apply confidentiality rules to five scenarios involving disclosures to family members, employers, and other providers

Analyze refusal-of-treatment and informed-refusal situations, documenting the hygienist's obligations in each

Contrast ethical obligations with legal minimums in three cases where the two diverge

Diagram the statutory and regulatory hierarchy governing dental hygiene practice in California and place each requirement studied so far at the correct level

Summarize the Board's authority: citation and fine authority, license discipline, and the enforcement path from complaint to outcome

Resolve four ethics vignettes by naming the competing principles, choosing an action, and defending the choice in writing

Re-teach the week 1-3 material from memory using a blank outline, then fill gaps against your notes

Differentiate negligence from malpractice and identify the four elements that must be proven in a dental hygiene claim

Apply the standard-of-care analysis to three hypothetical treatment errors and state what documentation would have changed the outcome

List recordkeeping content and retention obligations for patient records and describe the privacy rules that govern release of those records

Outline the mandatory reporting duties a hygienist holds, including which events trigger a report and to whom

Build a renewal checklist covering license renewal timing, continuing education hour and subject requirements, and the documentation to retain

Categorize at least fifteen acts that constitute unprofessional conduct and match each to a realistic practice scenario

Distinguish mandatory abuse and neglect reporting duties from permissive disclosures, including the reporting timeline

Draft the steps you would take after witnessing a colleague practicing outside scope

Sequence a complete instrument-processing cycle from transport through storage and identify the points where compliance most often fails

Compare the handling requirements for critical, semicritical, and noncritical items and assign the correct reprocessing method to each

Explain workplace safety obligations affecting the hygiene operatory, including exposure control and post-exposure response steps

State the patient-rights and referral obligations that apply when a condition is outside the hygienist's scope or the patient's needs exceed the setting

Take two full-length timed practice sets and score each by domain to expose weak areas

Re-study only the two lowest-scoring domains and re-test those items until accuracy exceeds 85 percent

Reconstruct from memory the supervision matrix, the reporting duties, and the renewal requirements without notes

Write a final one-page synthesis linking scope of practice, supervision, consent, and documentation