The future dental workforce in Malaysia: Recruitment, training, retention, and team working
Malaysia has extended their dental workforce in order to meet the growth of population; poor oral health status; and oral health need and demand. Given this, it is vital to explore the view of students on this issue. The specific objective for this study is to explore the motivation of dental stu...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Conference or Workshop Item |
| Language: | English English |
| Published: |
2014
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://irep.iium.edu.my/55450/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/55450/8/55450-program.pdf http://irep.iium.edu.my/55450/2/PPT-%20PGR%20Day%202014.pdf |
| Summary: | Malaysia has extended their dental workforce in order to meet the growth of population; poor oral health status; and oral health need and demand. Given this, it is vital to explore the view of students on this issue.
The specific objective for this study is to explore the motivation of dental students in selection of dentistry as a professional career in relation to individual (demographic and socio-economic factors) and school characteristics.
This is an explanatory mixed-methods study involving a cross-sectional, validated and piloted questionnaire survey of final year dental students (n= 430); exploring professional motivation and career expectations.
A response of 83% (n= 356) was achieved. The majority were female (71.1%), Malays (54.8%) and government students (76.7%). The top two of most important/very important items were ‘degree leads to recognized job’ (91.5%, n= 325) and ‘regular working hours’ (90.4%, n= 321). There were significant differences in factor influences by sex (male: ‘regular working hours’; p = 0.009); ethnic group (Indian: studied science; p = 0.001); and type of school (Government: ‘run a business’; p = 0.00).
This study identifies a wide range of important influences on students’ choice of dentistry, with variation by sex, ethnicity and type of school. |
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