• 대한치과기공학회지
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• 제22권1호
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• pp.179-198
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• 2000

Since dental prosthesis is made possible only when dental technicians give themselves to the study of knowledge and the acquisition of updated skills, continuing education is of great importance in that it makes up for the efforts of dental technicians. Accordingly, continuing education relates to a system designed to contribute to the enhancement of the talents of dental technicians and the dental health of the nation. Specialized knowledge and information may work as the best weapon to preserve their jbs. This is true of this modern society where no one can expecth to survive without acquiring knowledge and information constantly for work is getting more classified and more divirsifide. This paper is dedicated to take a look at the current condition of the continuing education of dental technicians and to come up with measure to make general evaluation and to improve continuing education. This research resorts to 609 questionnaires among 6433 copies save unfaithfully responded 34 copos with 6.431 dental technicians as the subjects enrolled in the Dental technician Association. The collected questionnaires consist of 365 dental technicians living in Seoul and of 244 ones, Which account for 11.8 percent of dental technicians enrolled in the association. Because dental technicians live more in local areas than Seoul, the generalization of this survey leaves something to be desired. I have come up with the following findings. 1. 6,431 dental technicians, or 36.3 percent of an total of 14,956 licensed dental technicians, were admitted as numbers of the Dental Tachnician Association as of October 31, 1999. In the '98 continuing education. 4,141 dental technicians among 4,711 dental technicians got relevant training, and in the '99 continuing education, 4,075 technicians, or 75.9 percent of 5,365 technicians got relevant training while 1,290 technicians or 24.2 percent, fail to get relevant training. 2. The survey has it that 38.1 percent of dental technicians are ignorant of the laws on continuing education, and that technicians staying in local communities(146 persons, or 61.6%) take more part in education than those living in the capital of Korea(159 persons, or 146%), and that the older they are, the more money they earn, the more carrer they have, the higher position they hold, the more part they take in education 3. According to the survey, those who have the experience of getting training more than three times account for 52 persons(16.8%) in Seoul and 47 persons(22.4%) in local districts(p<0.01). In terms of sanctions in relation to continuing education, 26 dental technicians(4.6%) say that they have ever gotten sanctions, and 533 dental technicians(95.4%) say that they haven't. And those who were absent from continuing education(72 technicians : 13.51%) didn't get any sanction. 4. In terms of the degree of understanding continuing education, local technicians(46.8% : 110 persons) have a higher understanding of continuing education than their countparts staying in Seoul(36.0% : 130). Continuing education is not the ultimate goal itself. It should be changed to motivate those who get education to be willing to take part in contunuing education, and to help dental technicians in a practical and specific way. And the branch societies should be developde to engage in more specialized and classified expert fields. Of course, the curriculum should be so selected that the conceptions of dental technicians may be reflected to the maximum extent, and the ultimate effores should be made to effect diversity in the ways of educational methods and to perfect the preparation of continuing education on the part of instructors. Regulations should be established in relation to continuing education with a veiew to enhancing the participation of continuing education and its effectiveness. The supervision of the Ministry of Health and Welfare is of great importance in this context. The regulation of continuing education is not administrative regulation, but the expression of national will to guarantee the medical service of the nation at highest level. Therefore, it is necessary that the Ministry of Health and Welfare should change their understanding of the needs for the continuing education of dental experts, and that the expertise of government employees in charge of continuing education should be expanded. It goes without saying that the government should suppory continuing education in a financial way so as to supply the person in charge of public welfare and control the quality of national medicine.

• The Journal of Korean Physical Therapy
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• 제14권4호
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• pp.308-322
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• 2002

The main objective of this paper is to examine the working conditions of physical therapists and to investigate the level of job satisfaction and organizational commitment under different working conditions. A survey was conducted through structured questionnaire for the physical therapists working in Busan area, and data from 175 therapists were utilized in the final analysis. Survey items included general characteristics of the therapists(sex, age, education, marital status, religion, income, career years, etc.), their working conditions(kinds of organizations they work in, location of PT room, weekly working hours, average number of patients, number of co-workers, equipments/facilities, etc.), and organizational effectiveness measured in terms of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Major results are as follows: 1) As for the general characteristics of the surveyed physical therapists, male(51.4$\%$) slightly exceeded female(48.6$\%$) and majority(more than 90$\%$) was 20-39 in age. Also, there were more single(57.7$\%$) than married(42.3$\%$), and 54.9$\%$ of the respondents had religion while 45.1$\%$ did not. In terms of the ranks in their organizations, only a few of them(6.9$\%$) were managers, and monthly salary mostly ranged from $\￦$1,000,000 to $\￦$2,500,000. More than half of them worked in various kinds of hospitals, with the remaining in health centers or social welfare institutions. 2) In regard to the working conditions of the respondents, 19.4$\%$ of PT rooms were located in basement areas while the remaining 80.6$\%$ in first to third floors. 34.3$\%$ of them treated 15 patients or less per day, whereas 25.1$\%$ treated 31 patients or more. Also, 52$\%$ recorded physical therapy charts periodically. As for the equipments and facilities, 25.1$\%$ felt 'sufficient' and 40$\%$'insufficient.' 3) The respondents provided various kinds of suggestions for the improvement of their working conditions, where the most important were 'salary raise' and 'reduction of working hours.' In addition, their requests to the PT Association included 'permission of opening of independent practice,' 'permission of legal specialty,' and 'vitalization of the Association.' 4) The comparative analysis of job satisfaction and organizational commitment among different characteristics of the respondents revealed that there was no significant difference between male and female, but in terms of age, the group of 40 or older was highest in both aspects. Besides, therapists who had 15 or more years of hospital career reported higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment than the others. It was also found that the level of organizational commitment increased as the rank of the respondents got higher. There were no significant differences in terms of marital status and religion. 5) Comparison with regard to working conditions showed that therapists employed in university hospitals, health centers and social welfare institutions felt higher job satisfaction and organizational commitment than those in community hospitals and clinics. Also, respondents who worked in basement areas had significantly lower job satisfaction than otherwise. The length of weekly working hours did not really affect the level of job satisfaction, but it was important to maintain 'regular working hours' for the hospitals to improve the employees' organizational commitment. As for the number of patients per day, 'medium level' (21-25 patients) had highest scores in both aspects. And, finally, sufficiency of equipments and facilities was found to be important for the improvement of organizational commitment.