• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.625-633
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• 2019

The aim of this study was to review the history of dental hygiene education in Korea on its $50^{th}$ anniversary in 2015. Internal resources and documents from the Korean Dental Hygienists' Association and other accessible resources were examined to verify the historical facts of dental hygiene education in Korea. From 1965 to 1967, the first class of four dental hygiene students graduated, and the legal basis for dental hygiene as a profession was established, which led to the start of the profession Registered Dental Hygienist in 1971. From 1977 to 1993, 13 higher educational institutions started dental hygiene programs. The Korean Dental Hygienists' Association (1977) and Korean Association of Dental Hygiene College Professors (1987) were established in this period. From 1994 to 2006, the duration of major-intensive course programs in dental hygiene was extended to three from the two years of 1994, and the first bachelor's degree program in dental hygiene started in 2002. In this period, studies on dental hygiene became significantly active owing to vigorous activities by academic societies. The master's degree program in dental hygiene was established in 2007. Academic dental hygiene journals, the Journal of Dental Hygiene Science, and Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Hygiene Education were promoted as the registered journals of the Korean Research Foundation. From 1965 to 2015, dental hygiene education in South Korea expanded both quantitatively and qualitatively and is now ready for further progress in the future.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.12 no.8
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• pp.248-255
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• 2012

The purpose of this study was to examine the satisfaction of dental hygiene students receiving dental hygiene education with their major, their view of profession and the correlation between their satisfaction with major and view of profession in an attempt to provide some information on how to teach students to accept the occupation of dental hygienist as a profession. 1. As for satisfaction with major, the dental hygiene students were most satisfied with awareness of dental hygienist, and they were least satisfied with courses. 2. The major satisfaction score was 3.51. The students whose academic standing was higher and who wanted to work in a general hospital or university hospital expressed more satisfaction with their major(p<0.01, p<0.05). 3. Concerning view of profession, they placed the most significance on the independence of dental hygiene, and put the least value on social awareness. 4. The view of profession score was 3.48. The students whose academic standing was higher regarded the job of dental hygienist as a profession(p<0.05). 5. As to the relationship between satisfaction with major and view of profession, those who were more satisfied with their major gave more weight to the job of dental hygienist as a profession(p<0.001).

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.505-514
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• 2020

Objectives: Although dental hygienists are professional workers, their job retention is short. Therefore, in order to improve job retention, the relationship between professional identity and professional self-concept was analyzed. Methods: From January 1 to April 30, 2020, 155 dental hygienists were examined. For data analysis, multiple regression analysis was conducted to confirm the effects of professional identity and professional self-concept on job retention. Results: The dental hygienist's professional self-concept was significantly higher in the team manager than in the staff, but the professional identity was not significantly different. Dental hygienists' professional identity, professional self-concept, and job retention were all positively correlated (p<0.05). As a factor influencing dental hygienist's job retention, the self-concept of the profession had a significant effect, but the identity of the profession did not. Conclusions: Since the professional self-concept has a positive effect on maintaining the profession of dental hygienists, it is necessary to make efforts to improve the professional self-concept in order to increase the job retention.

• Journal of Korean Academy of Dental Administration
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.36-42
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• 2018

This study aimed to assess dental hygiene students' and other medical personnel's knowledge of dental hygienists' legal responsibilities. A self-reported questionnaire was conducted for 2 weeks from March 25 to April 9, 2017. One of the main questions focused on the legal scope of practice for dental hygienists according to current medical technicians. A total of 298 subjects' responses were analyzed. We found that 62.1% of the respondents were aware of dental hygienists' legal responsibilities. Of the dental hygiene students surveyed, 93.6% replied that they were aware of other medical personnel's expectations. Responses to 12 legal questions were shown to have different distributions depending upon the level of dental hygienist education. Overall, knowledge of dental hygienist legal responsibilities was more comprehensive for senior students in each legal topic. However, few students (1.7%) answered all 12 legal questions correctly. In conclusion, dental hygiene students' awareness of their profession's legal scope should be improved. In addition, the Korean Dental Hygienists Association needs to more actively promote understanding of the profession's legal scope as well as of medical personnel's expectations of dental hygienists' legal roles.

• Journal of Korean Dental Hygiene Science
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.123-144
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• 2022

Background: The aim of this study was to identify the bibliographic characteristics and research trends of the literature published on the profession of dental hygiene to provide basic data for research, education, and intervention program development for the establishment of healthy professionalism among dental hygienists and dental hygienist students. Methods: A literature search was conducted through four databases. They were looked up using the terms "dental hygiene" and "professional." Finally, 46 research papers that meet the selection criteria were selected for analysis. Results: From 2004 to 2022, 46 articles were published. Except for key words related to subjects and tools, key words ranked at the top were job satisfaction, self-esteem, self-leadership, and stress. Five tools of professionalism-professional self-concept, professional intuition, professional identity, and a professional values scale -were used in the study. Conclusion: Considering the social perception of dental hygienists as professionals and the reality of dental hygiene that is carrying out the process of professionalization, efforts are needed to identify and promote beliefs and attitudes toward professionals such as professionalism and professional identity.

• The Korean Journal of Health Service Management
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• v.6 no.3
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• pp.127-140
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• 2012

This study involved an investigation of perception of dental hygienists based on a self-reported survey of a sample of 230health care personnel working at long-term care hospitals located in Gyeonggi Province, Korea. The primary objective was to provide basic data for establishing various policies related to building up a positive image of dental hygienists as a profession. The results were as follows. 79.1% of the respondents recognized dental hygienists as a profession. Among the titles for a dental hygienist, "teacher" was the most common with 47.4% of all. Female respondents and respondents who were able to discern between dental hygienists and nursing assistants were more likely to perceive dental hygienists positively than male respondents and ones who were not, respectively. Among social perceptions of dental hygienists was there a negative finding, that is, there was no appropriate title to address dental hygienists. This negative finding indicates that there is a vital need to enhance the perception of who are dental hygienists as a professionals level at the individual as well as institutional level.

• Journal of dental hygiene science
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.193-201
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• 2017

This study was conducted to derive core and detailed competencies of dental hygienists to be utilized as educational targets to be reached by graduation as well as basic data that can be reflected in the development and improvement of dental hygiene curricula. This study analyzed publication reports from the Korean Dental Hygienists Association, the International Federation of Dental Hygienists, the Commission on Dental Accreditation, and the American Dental Education Association. Based on the academic classification system for dental hygiene studies, the components of core and detailed competencies of dental hygiene school at the time of graduation were extracted and developed through expert panel discussions. This study defined competencies at the graduation level of dental hygiene school and derived eight core competencies and their 52 detailed competencies to serve as educational objectives from four areas: professionalism, communication, clinical practice, and community and health promotion. In the future, it will be necessary to conduct self-assessments of competencies based on those developed in this study, at time of the graduation from dental hygiene school, as well as to continuously develop competency-based curricula according to entry level, knowledge level, and graduation level. Thus, it is urgently necessary to develop a system that can evaluate the competencies of dental hygienists after graduation and put this system into practical use.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.369-377
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• 2023

Objectives: The aim of this study was to develop and validate a Korean-adapted version of the job expectations scale for dental hygienists. Methods: To achieve this goal, a comprehensive methodology was employed, including frequency analysis, exploratory factor analysis (maximum likelihood, direct oblimin rotation), confirmatory factor analysis, Cronbach's α reliability, independent t-test, and one-way ANOVA (Duncan post-hoc test) were performed. Results: The Korean version of job expectations scale for dental hygienists comprised 21 items in the personal domain and 5 items in the social domain. The scale demonstrated high construct validity, convergent validity, discriminant validity, and reliability were found. While dental hygienists were found to have higher expectations in the their personal domain than the social domain, expectations in the social domain were higher among male hygienists, those with a bachelor's degree or higher, those in regular permanent employment, and those working in hospital-level or higher facilities. Conclusions: Job expectations is a more comprehensive construct than job roles or professional identity. We anticipate that the instrument will be widely used to analyze trends in job expectations in response to changes in societal values regarding to dental hygienists, the gap between realities and ideals within the dental hygiene profession, and policy considerations.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.10 no.4
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• pp.745-755
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• 2010

Objectives : The research of dental hygiene has made considerable progress over the past 10 years toward developing a unique body of knowledge for guiding education, practice, and profession. The purpose of this study was to determine Barriers to Research Utilization among Dental Hygiene Researchers. Methods : This study used cross-sectional design, self-reported questionnaire. That was consisted of 31 items(5 categories), reliability was tested(Cronbach's Alpha=0.882). The subjects were 117, mean age was $36.1{\pm}9.3$. They were consisted of full-time faculty (35.9%) and the doctoral course(61.0%). Results : The greatest barriers in dental hygiene research were 'Dental hygienists are isolated from knowledgeable colleagues with whom to discuss with' in Dental Hygienist category and 'The facilities are inadequate for implementation' in setting. In Research category, 'the research has not been replicated' and 'the relevant literature is not complied in one place' in presentation were the greatest. The researchers who were the twenty's, received dental hygiene license after 2000 year and studying for the master's degree had more barriers in all categories significantly. Conclusions : This finding provided evidence that there are barriers in dental hygiene research and we found the junior researchers have more difficulties. To improve this barriers, dental hygiene related associations need to focus on the research utilization and encourage them to attend conferences. In addition, research related education should be provided to them. Further study is essential to investigate the barriers for the established researchers in dental hygiene and to find specific solutions.

• Journal of Korean society of Dental Hygiene
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• v.21 no.6
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• pp.773-784
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• 2021

Objectives: This study presents the basic data necessary to explore the methods used of Korean dental hygienists to resolve oral health inequalities in Korea via reviewing the professionalization trend of American dental hygienists. Methods: The supervision levels of American dental hygienists, and system of dental therapists were analyzed using the data published by the relevant associations. Results: In America, dental hygienists help address oral health inequalities. However, due to limitations in the supervision levels and scope of practice of dental hygienists, the autonomy of dental hygienists was expanded, and mid-level practitioner were employed. The autonomy for dental hygiene practice was higher in public than in private in America. Some states have introduced dental therapists as mid-level practitioners. Their practice settings have limitations such as serving low-income, uninsured, and underserved patients or serving in a dental health professional shortage area. Conclusions: It is necessary to expand the autonomy of dental hygienists based on their profession. In particular, it is suggested that they start with the low-risk level practices. Further, it is necessary to introduce a dental hygiene specialist system specialized for fields with high social demands.