Factors influencing the career selection of first-year dental hygiene students

As dental hygiene programs experience declining enrollments, attention has focused on the need for effective recruitment strategies. One response to this need is to learn more about what influences dental hygiene students' career selections. This study examined the factors that were reported to have influenced the career selections of students newly enrolled in one baccalaureate dental hygiene program. Additionally, the students' levels of vocational identity were measured in order to determine if students with higher levels of vocational identity were influenced by different factors. The dental hygienist received the highest ranking by all students for being influential in the decision to select dental hygiene as a career. This supports earlier findings related to the importance of involving dental hygiene professionals in recruitment of future dental hygienists.