Abstract
The purpose of this study was to examine the awareness of dental hygienists about on-the-job training in public health sector in an effort to stir up their on-the-job training(OJT) and to facilitate the planning of successful educational programs. A survey was conducted nationwide for two months in October and November 2006, and the answer sheets from 811 dental hygienists were analyzed. The findings of the study were as follows: 1. 40.7 percent of the dental hygienists investigated never underwent OJT geared toward public officials, which wasn't linked to oral health. 2. As for the experiences of professional oral health education(or OJT) as members of local public dental clinics by service term, 64.9 percent of the dental hygienists who had worked for less than 10 years never received that kind of education, and 70.5 percent of those with a 15-year or more career received that education just once(p<0.05). The dental hygienists who received that education viewed it favorably, as they found that to be conducive to their job performance. In the event of those who didn't receive that education, a lack of chance to do that was the most common reason. 3. In regard to motivation of receiving professional oral health education(or OJT), the largest rate of the dental hygienists who stood at 71.9 percent received that education voluntarily in pursuit of self-development and better job performance. The training programs provided by the oral health division of the Ministry for Health, Welfare and Family Affairs were excluded in this study. As to educational spending by the dental hygienists or their employers over the past two years, 56.9 percent paid 100 thousand to less than 500 thousand won. 46.6 percent never paid for that, and about 15.5 percent received education at their own expenses. Concerning the form of OJT, lectures were provided to 50.3 percent. 4. The dental hygienists who worked in local public health clinics hoped for more intensive and better education and training related to oral health projects.