OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to the ethical propensity, professionalism, and ethical job behavior of dental hygienists. METHODS: The subjects of this study were 748 dental hygienists, who are working at various types of dental hospitals and clinics around the country, from January 23 to March 30, 2012. Data were analyzed with a t-test, one-way ANOVA, Chi-square, and Stepwise multiple regression analysis SPSS 19.0. RESULTS: As for the ethical propensity of dental hygienists, their idealism scores were 3.87, which was higher than their relativism scores. The ethical job behavior and professionalism scores were higher in absolutists (3.80, 3.40 points) and situationists (3.77, 3.44 points), than subjectivists (3.49, 3.19 points) and exceptionists (3.38, 3.09 points) in the ethical types. The ethical job behavior and professionalism-related common Influence factors was idealism. CONCLUSIONS: The absolutists and situationists with a high tendency of idealism were high in the level of professionalism and ethical job behavior, according to the ethical types.
Dental Hygienists ; Humans

The purpose of this study was to identify the effect of dental hygienists' perceptions of dental organizational culture and professional identity on organizational commitment. A survey was conducted with 310 dental hygienists working in dental hospitals and dental offices. If dental hygienists experience organizational cultures as having different degrees of organizational commitment, then the type of organizational culture and commitment may be important variables in understanding and reducing the turnover rate of dental hygienists and improving workplace performance. Efforts to form a healthy and positive organizational culture may therefore be necessary. The organizational culture most recognized by the dental hygienist was hierarchical culture (3.39) and the least recognized was task-orientated culture (2.71). The professional identity of the dental hygienist was 3.75 and the organizational commitment was 2.98. Correlation analysis was conducted to investigate the relationship between dental organization culture type, professional dental hygienist identity, and organizational commitment. As a result, professional identity and organizational commitment showed positive(+) correlation with innovation oriented culture and relationship oriented culture. Among the organizational culture types, relationship-orientated culture (p<0.001) and innovation-orientated culture (p=0.006) were significant influences on organizational commitment, and professional identity did not have a significant influence. The regression model was found to be statistically appropriate (F=11.857, p<0.001) and the model explaining power was 14.9%. These results suggest that efforts to create a relationship-orientated culture and an innovation-orientated culture and to reduce the hierarchical culture can be a strategy to enhance the organizational commitment and the professional identity of dental hygienists.
Dental Hygienists* ; Dental Offices* ; Humans ; Organizational Culture*

This study aimed at comprehending the duty, role, and difficulty of intermediary manager through in-depth investigation of dental hygienist intermediary managers experienced over 10 years working in a dental clinic. In-depth interviews were conducted with 10 dental intermediary managers and Giorgi's analysis method was used to analyze the data. Findings revealed that the work experience of the dental hygienist intermediary managers appeared in the range of "becoming an intermediary manager through various processes", "various duties that they experience as an intermediary manager", "difficulty as an intermediary manager", "ability that they perceive as necessary for being a dental intermediary manager", and "worthiness they feel as the intermediary manager". The dental intermediary managers complained of difficulties at work, and appeared to perform various tasks such as human resource management, clinic management support, and patient's management. Accordingly, the researcher considers that research on dental intermediary managers' capacity development necessary.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists ; Humans ; Methods

The purpose of this study was to investigate a reliability and validity of the Korean version for measuring tool the job embeddedness of dental hygienists. The survey was modified and revised to fit into Korean culture. A survey was conducted with 274 dental hygienists in dental clinics. The data was used for the analysis of the study, using PASW Statistics 18.0 and IBM SPSS AMOS 7.0. The factor analysis showed that the job embeddedness of the dental hygienists was composed of three elements, namely ‘organization fit’, ‘job connectivity’, and ‘personnel relationships’. The validity of the model examined by a confirmatory factor analysis satisfied most of the relevant requirements. All of the factors had the conceptual reliability and variant extracted index above the minimum requirements, ensuring reliability and concentrated validity. The Cronbach’s alpha shows a good reliability. In conclusion, it was proven that dental hygienist’s job embeddedness measurement tool has high validity and reliability. Further, this study could be used to improve dental hygienist’s long term working, and the growth stage of dental clinic.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Humans ; Reproducibility of Results*

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the busyness of dentists and analyzed factors related to busyness in these professionals. METHODS: The subjects were 243 practicing dentists. Surveys were carried out via mail. Busyness was measured by using the Mumma scale. The data were analyzed using the Kruskal-Wallis test. RESULTS: The dentists' busyness index was 1.91. Of the participants, 40% of practicing dentists wanted more patients, 30.8% did not overwork but did not want more patients, and 27.1% overworked and did not want more patients. The busyness index was significantly related to the number of dental hygienists and dentists. However, it did not differ with respect to the number of assistant nurses. CONCLUSIONS: The busyness index should be considered when developing relevant human resource plans.
Dental Hygienists ; Dentists* ; Humans ; Postal Service

This study was aimed to identify the diffusion of systemic disease-related knowledge among dental hygienists. Two hundreds and eleven dental hygienists were selected for the study. Data was collected between August 31, 2015 and September 20, 2015 by handing out questionnaires. Returned questionnaires were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, and ANOVA. Dental hygienists showed overall mean of 0.64 on the systemic disease related knowledge. Age, education level, career, and educational experience showed significant influence on the systemic disease knowledge (p<0.01). Dental hygienists revealed overall mean of 0.61 (full mark=1) on the usefulness recognition of systemic disease related knowledge. Age (p<0.001), education level (p<0.01), career (p<0.001), and educational experience (p<0.01) showed significant effects on the usefulness recognition of systemic disease knowledge. Degree of how dental hygienists apply the systemic disease-related knowledge to the service was mean 0.86 (full mark=2). Age (p<0.01), education level (p<0.01), career (p<0.01), and educational experience (p<0.001) had significant impacts on how dental hygienists apply the systemic disease related knowledge to the service. The diffusion of systemic disease knowledge among dental hygienists was 2.17, which represented ‘persuade’. These results indicated that a study is needed to understand the diffusion of systemic disease knowledge among dental hygienists and to identify obstacles in the process. Moreover, an education program should be developed to offer practical training on the systemic disease-related knowledge. Further studies should evaluate the effectiveness of the program.
Dental Hygienists* ; Diffusion* ; Education ; Hand ; Humans

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to identify the types of adult attachment and determine the relationship between adult attachment and job factors in dental hygienists. Ultimately, it was necessary to identify the need for a secure attachment to improve the quality of clinical dental hygienist's services. METHODS: Data of 454 clinical dental hygienists working in dental hospitals or clinics were collected. The research tools consisted of items related to the general and work characteristics of dental hygienists (9 items), adult attachment styles (36 items), organizational commitments (12 items), occupational stress (15 items), and interpersonal relations (18 items). Cronbach's α of each tool was ≥0.7. RESULTS: Most of the participants had fearful attachment styles, followed by dismissing-avoidance, security, and preoccupation. Security was the highest level of organizational commitment according to the adult attachment style, although the differences of the levels were insignificant. For occupational stress, preoccupation was the highest, followed by fearful, security, and dismissing-avoidance, and the differences were significant (p<0.001). For interpersonal relations, security was the highest, followed by preoccupation, dismissing-avoidance, and fearful in order, and the differences were significant (p<0.001). CONCLUSION: Job stress and interpersonal relation ability according to the adult attachment style of clinical dental hygienists had significant results. Thus, the development of attachment improvement programs by personal style, development of differentiated clinical education and its application, and improvements in the adult attachment styles of clinical dental hygienists would be required rather than simply presenting the needs to collectively improvement the working environment.
Adult ; Dental Hygienists ; Education ; Humans ; Interpersonal Relations

The purpose of this study was to identify knowledge awareness, and performance of dentist and dental staff regarding protection of patient's personal information. In addition, this research was conducted to highlight the importance of protection of patient's personal information and provide a guideline for establishing measures in this regard. A survey was conducted on 506 dentists or dental staff working in Seoul, Gyeonggi and Chungcheong provinces. The data was analyzed using t-test, one-way ANOVA, χ2, Pearson's correlation coefficient, and Scheffe test, using the PASW Statistics ver. 18.0 program. We found that the participants' knowledge and perception of the protection of patient's personal information were relatively low compared to those of other professionals. Such knowledge and perception were especially and significantly low in dental hygienists. In addition, a high level of knowledge and awareness showed a positive correlation with the extent of performance. Therefore, it is important that dentists and dental staff are aware of issues regarding the protection of patients' personal information. For this purpose, educational and training programs on such issues appear essential.
Dental Hygienists ; Dental Staff ; Dentists ; Education ; Gyeonggi-do ; Humans ; Seoul

This study was aimed at exploring the meaning and essence of the conflict experiences of clinical dental hygienists. In-depth interviews with 13 dental hygienists working in a dental clinic were conducted. Giorgi's method was used for qualitative analysis of the data. Conflict experiences of clinical dental hygienists were categorized into four central meaning as task conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, organizational environment conflicts, and conflict management style. Participants felt more sensitive towards the attitudes of people than treatment itself. Further studies on the multifaceted approach to conflict experiences of dental hygienists should be made. Additional research is necessary to develop effective measures and program to prevent and reduce conflict and stress in the work environment of dental hygienists.
Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Humans ; Methods ; Qualitative Research*

A total of 228 dental hygienists working in dental hospitals and clinics in the Busan and Gyeongnam areas were surveyed between August 1, 2015, and October 15, 2015. The factors influencing infection control awareness and implementation levels among the dental hygienists were investigated to prepare basic data with the goal of establishing guidelines for systemic infection control. Treatment preparation support for infection control positively correlated with equipment and facility support (r=0.4343, p<0.01), treatment skill and information support (r=0.231, p<0.01), infection control education support (r=0.266, p<0.01), infection control awareness (r=0.354, p<0.01), and infection control implementation levels (r=0.442, p<0.01). Equipment and facility support positively correlated with treatment skill and information support (r=0.418, p<0.01), infection control education support (r=0.422, p<0.01), infection control awareness (r=0.404, p<0.01), and infection control implementation levels (r=0.454, p<0.01). Infection control education support positively correlated with infection control awareness (r=0.348, p<0.01) and infection control implementation levels (r=0.405, p<0.01). Infection control awareness positively correlated with the infection control implementation level (r=0.879, p<0.01). The factors influencing the awareness of infection control include treatment preparation support, equipment and facility support, treatment skill and information support, and infection control education support. The influencing the infection control implementation level include treatment preparation support, equipment and facility support, infection control education support, and treatment skill and information support. To enhance the awareness of infection control and implementation levels amongdental hygienists, an infection control system must be established and implemented A rigorous system for evaluating dental clinics must also be established to ensure an ideal dental treatment environment and to protect patients' health and safety.
Busan ; Dental Clinics ; Dental Hygienists* ; Education ; Humans ; Infection Control*