의료시장 개방에 관한 치과위생사의 인지도 조사

Abstract

Dental Hygienists' Awareness of Opening of Health Care Services -Dental Clinics of Jeju Special Self-Governing Province-

Myung-Hee Lee, B.S. Advisor : Prof. Dong-kie Kim, D.D.S., M.S.D., Ph.D Department of ㅖublic Health Graduate School of Health Sience, Chosun University.

Objectives: In the constantly evolving health care industry, the area of dental care needs to be prepared for opening of health care services, not only to meet the competition but also to secure competitive edge. By conducting research on the awareness of dental hygienists working in this field, the findings of this study could be useful as a basic foundation for stimulating appropriate response from the dental medical community to opening of health care services.

Subjects and Methods: A group of 150 dental hygienists was selected from 306 hygienists working at 142 dental clinics listed on the membership directory, issued by Korean Dental Association in 2008. The questionnaire includes 4 general questions, 5 items related to the awareness of opening of health care industry, 13 questions related to complementary factors, 10 related to the prerequisites for the degree in hygiene science, and 1 the need for coordinated hospital system. There are a total of 33 questions. The 5-point Likert scale (except the general items) is used to quantify the respnses.

Results 1.Approximately 14.7% of the dental hygiene companies became aware of the opening of the health care services (p<0.05), and the positive opinions accounted for 23.3% (p>0.05) of the responses.

2.Regardless of their experience and awareness, improvement of foreign language was the hightest with 953%, improvement of quality care was sencond with 88.0%, and improvement in diagnosis and treatment care was third with 86.0% (p>0.05).

3.Regardless of their experience and awareness, the three areas of the highest dental treatment demands were implant with 67.3%, aesthetics with 58.0% and oral and maxillofacial surgery with 49.3%.

4.The required subjects for the dental hygienists following the health care liberalization were consultation and education with 80.0%, and quality of care and the customer relationship 75.3%, regardless of their experience and awareness (p>0.05).

Conclusion: As shown in the above, there hardly is any awareness of the opening of health care services among the dental hygienists. The dental community should make an effort to provide relevant information systematically, and develop curricula for improving the foreign language skills and an ability to manage the medical services.