Abstract
Objectives: The purpose of this study was to provide basic data on the current status and ways to improve the dental hygiene society by investigating working conditions, working experience, dental institution types among some dental hygienists, and ways to improve the dental hygiene society. Methods: This study conducted an online survey to 450 graduates of the department of dental hygiene in colleges in Gyeonggi, Jeolla and Gangwon Provinces. This study got some help in securing the list of graduates from the heads of the departments. SPSS WIN 23.0 was used to analyze the data. Results: To questions on what is the most important thing in considering to apply for jobs, the highest proportion (39.1%) of respondents designated employee welfare, followed by improvement of clinical dental hygiene (34.0%), of welfare related contents (26.0%), and salary (19.5%). In the relationship between employee welfare and dental institution type and between employee welfare and work experience, employee welfare tend to rise with the increase of work years. In the relationship between the director and staff members, it was found that as work years accumulate, the relationship tends to decrease. The dental clinic with no more than five staff members showed the best relationship between the leader and co-workers, while employee welfare was the highest in the other types of clinics, and the differences were statistically significant. Conclusions: Dental hygienists need to make various efforts to improve their statuses as professionals. In order to secure a part of professionalism, it is necessary for them to make more efforts to realize the health-care professionals being promoted by the Dental Hygienists Association of Korea.
Acknowledgements
본 연구는 동남보건대학교 연구비 지원에 의해서 수행된 것임.
Figures & Tables
Table 1. General characteristics of the subjects
