Abstract
Purpose : The purpose of this study was to examine the career-related awareness of dental hygiene students and their awareness of employment in an effort to shed light on the consciousness of dental hygiene students on career and employment. Methods : A survey was conducted on 340 selected dental hygiene students in several colleges of health located in an urban community, South Gyeongsang Province, from June 8 and 16, 2016. The collected data from 335 respondents were analyzed by SPSS 21.0 for Windows. Result : Where they hoped to find a job was analyzed, and they hoped to be hired in an large city due to the possibility of development and expectations for high pay, and the students who wanted to be employed in a small or mid-sized urban community cited personal connections as the reason(p<.001). As for conditions for getting a good job, the largest number of the students placed importance on skills, and the students who were in the higher academic years attached more importance to skills and money(p<.01). As for preferred workplace, dental hospital was the biggest group's favorite workplace, and the students who were in the higher academic years preferred to work in dental clinic or dental hospital(p<.05). Concerning the length of dental hygienist career, the greatest group thought it would be between 11 and 15 years(p<.05). Conclusion : The findings of the study might not be generalizable because students from a few colleges only were investigated, but the findings are expected to help improve the understanding of dental hygiene students on career and how to prepare for the job market and to provide colleges and educational institutions with information on career and ways of offering vocational guidance.
