초록
Objectives: The purpose of the study was to examine the expected role and competency of future public health dental hygienist. Methods: This study was cross-sectional design. One dental hygienist per 16 cities and provinces was selected from the list of Korea Society of public dental hygienists. After signing in the informed consent, the interview was carried out. Transcripts were made after each interview. Six researchers recorded meaningful contents in the transcripts. They classified and integrated the information that they had recorded commonly or not. Their opinions were converged by conference. Two supervisors verified results whether they were derived from actual recordings for the reliability of the results. The records were confirmed once again and corrected into common message. Results: The main difficult subjects in public health official examination were public health, English, and medical legislation to pass the examine. The preliminary certificates included public health related certificate, computer certificate, and driver's license. In the personality aspect, creativity, activeness, cooperation and good responsibility were very important trait to public health official. Among 16 interviews, 9 were positive and 5 were negative about the future prospects of a public dental hygienist. Conclusions: The future of public health dental hygienist will be positive. Throughout effort to prepare for the public health official, the public health dental hygienist will be expanded and in many ways the dental hygienists will take the charge of the important parts of the public health administration in the near future.