Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate the current status and contents of communication courses in dental hygiene programs in South Korea. Methods: Survey on dental communication training courses was done, and 51 schools (62.2%) responded among a total of 82 dental hygiene schools in Korea. The questionnaire was sent via e-mail and additional telephone calls were used to facilitate response. Statistical analysis and frequency analysis were done through SPSS 23.0 for windows program (copyright(c) SPSS Inc., USA). Results: The current establishment rates of dental communication courses in 3-year or 4-year dental hygiene programs were 96.9% and 84.2%, respectively. Such courses were identified as graduation requirement courses in 38.7% of the 3-year hygiene programs and 62.5% of the 4-year dental hygiene programs. When practical training sessions are included within such courses, 70% of such courses included ‘discussion and presentation’ and ‘audio-visual aids’ as a part of their contents, while 48.3% of them were utilizing ‘role-playing’. Conclusions: As dental communication is one of the most important core competencies of dental hygienists, it should be included as a required course for graduation, and practical training such as ‘role-playing’ should be implemented in order to enhance communication skills in students.
Figures & Tables
Table 1. Distribution of department of dental hygiene by metropolitan city or province Unit: N (%)
