Relationship between career education experience among final‐year dental hygiene students and their perspective towards work and profession: A nationwide survey in dental hygiene schools of Japan

Abstract

Objectives This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the experience of receiving career education among final‐year dental hygiene students and their views regarding their work and profession, as part of research on the working style of dental hygienists. Methods An anonymous, self‐administered survey was sent by post to all the 162 dental hygienist schools in Japan with dental hygiene students in their final year in November 2019. The main questions were regarding student attributes, career aspirations, their perspective on work and profession and whether or not they received career education at a dental hygienist training school. Analysis was conducted by cross‐tabulation and logistic regression. Results Completed questionnaires were sent to us by 150 schools (response rate 92.6%), with a response from 6,270 students. The students who had received career education had significantly higher awareness and plans for the profession and a positive attitude towards the work (p < 0.01). Following adjustment for age, sex, educational attainment, length of the course of study and timing of class the results shows that there was a significant relation between the experience of the career education with having future plans (odds ratio = 2.11, 95% confidence interval = 1.88–2.38, p < 0.01). Conclusions It was observed that the experience of receiving career education just before graduating from dental hygienist school was related to an increased positive attitude of the students towards their work and profession. Further long‐term investigations are necessary to evaluate the effects of career education among dental hygiene students and their attitude towards their profession.

Factors Affecting the Career Continuation of Newly Graduated and Reinstated Dental Hygienists Who Participated in a Technical Training Program in Japan

“…One limitation of this study is that the training program has only recently been established, and the number of dental hygienists who have completed the training program is still relatively small. In particular, with approximately 7000 new dental hygiene graduates in Japan each year [ 43 ], we do not believe that the results of the NGDH group in this study are representative of the study population. It is assumed that the NGDH group in this study is relatively motivated to learn and is not representative of all new dental hygienists in Japan.…”

“…Women with good career outlook are considered motivated to continue working in their organizations and are therefore considered capable of sufficient career development [ 42 ]. While there have been some studies on the careers of dental hygiene students [ 43 ] and employed dental hygienists [ 44 ], limited studies have investigated career outlook focusing on NGDHs and RDHs. The current results reiterate that having good career outlook is related to the intention to continue working, especially among those returning to work, suggesting that continuous career education may also help secure human resources in the field of dental hygiene.…”

Perceived stress and career planning awareness of Japanese and Taiwanese undergraduate dental hygiene students

“…The implementation of career education can make students' career plans clearer and help them gain employment and a more positive work attitude. 25 Moreover, improving dental hygiene students’ sense of coherence, which is related to their view of the profession, was associated with an increase in the number of years they wanted to work as DHs and in their job satisfaction. 26 …”